Adventures in the Sky
by onepiece fanatic
Summary: Third in my series! Luffy&co are in the sky, landing themselves into deep trouble... again. But there's a new nakama along for the ride this time! How will she change the story? Full summary on my profile, R&R!
1. A Sea of Clouds

**Author's Note: This is the third story in a series I'm writing. First one's "Feathered Nakama", second one is "To the Sky!" If you haven't read them, go read and review!**

**Disclaimer: Don't own One Piece, how many times do I have to say it?**

Chapter One: A Sea of Clouds

The sun shone on a white sea of clouds. Nothing moved, as though all of nature was holding its breath. There was a low rumble in the air, then suddenly…!

A familiar ship, though now modified and looking like a poor representation of a chicken, sped into the air, its occupants screaming.

It fell with a spectacular crash onto the sea, rocked dangerously several times, then steadied.

On board, the crew was gasping, taking in air after a terrifying minute of not being able to breathe in the thick sea of clouds below them.

Nami lay on the deck, chest rising and falling as she gulped in air. Poor Chopper had spirals in his eyes. Sanji coughed, his cigarette gone and soaking wet. Usopp just lay there, motionless and unconscious. Zoro, gulping in air, held a choking Hoshi around her shoulders. She would have fallen off the ship had Zoro not grabbed her around the waist. Now that the ship had stopped its mad rush, the raven-haired girl shook as the water in her lungs fought to get out. Even Robin looked severely shaken up by their journey. Everyone was soaking wet from flying though a cloud.

"Damn, we do some crazy things," Hoshi laughed, once she got her breathing reasonably under control. Her aqua eyes sparked with the thrill of the journey, and the phoenix in her mind chimed _Fun!!_

"Everyone still here?" Zoro called.

"I… I think so," Robin said.

There was one person who was not coughing or gasping in the slightest though… "OI! EVERYONE!" Luffy yelled with glee. "Check it out!"

The ship was, unbelievably, floating on top of the clouds.

"What is this place!?" Nami exclaimed.

"It's SOOOO white!" Luffy yelled in glee.

"How can we float here?" Hoshi wondered.

"Sure we can float on them! They're clouds!" Luffy said reasonably.

"No we can't," the rest of the crew told their captain.

"But we're floating on them right now!" Luffy argued. Hoshi groaned and shook the water out of her hair.

"AHH! USOPP'S NOT BREATHING!" Chopper yelled.

"WHAT!? Try CPR!" Luffy demanded.

"Yosh, I'll give Hoshi-chan CPR!" Sanji sang. Zoro hit him on the head… hard.

"She doesn't need it, you moron," he said grumpily… very grumpily.

"Stand back," Hoshi warned, going up to Usopp. Luffy and Chopper hurriedly moved back to watch.

Hoshi jumped into the air, did a flip, and stomped on Usopp's stomach, her aqua eyes sparking with suppressed laughter. A fountain of water blasted out of Usopp's mouth, then he opened his eyes and sat up, clutching his belly and coughing.

"Usopp!" Chopper and Luffy yelled. "You're alright!"

"No I'm NOT!" Usopp gasped. "My ribs hurt like hell…"

"Don't worry!" Hoshi assured him cheerfully. "You don't have any broken bones. I made sure of that."

"YOU did this to me?!"

"You weren't breathing!"

"But you sti- AHH! SO MANY CLOUDS!!! TOO MANY CLOUDS!!"

Hoshi sweatdropped. "A little slow there, aren't you?"

As Usopp continued his freakout-fest, Nami looked out over the ocean. "This is like the sea of the sky," she murmured. The carrot-head glanced at her Log Post, and gasped. "But… the Log Post is still pointing up!" She started panicking. "Ah! What're we going to do!? The Log Post really is broken! We're all go-"

Hoshi bopped Nami on the head. "Don't panic, it means we have to go higher up."

"I believe Hoshi is right," Robin commented. "We seem to be in the middle layer of the Cumlorgalis cloud. We need to go higher up to reach Sky Island."

"So how do we do that?" Chopper asked.

"That I don't know."

Sanji and Zoro were arguing… again. "Who're you calling a moron, you shitty Marimo-head?" Sanji asked, one foot on Zoro's head.

"I forget," Zoro replied, unfazed.

Hoshi laughed. "Knock it off you two," she scolded teasingly. "Ah, that's right! Zoro, can I talk to you for a second?"

Zoro wondered about what she would have to talk to him about, but he followed her into Nami's mikan grove anyways. Sanji glowered at their backs.

Hoshi coughed, her back to him, unsure about how to start. Her crystal sparkled as it caught a ray of sun, and her black hair blew with a slight wind.

"Um… I just wanted to say… thanks for looking out for me." She turned and grinned uncertainly.

Zoro wasn't quite sure what to say to this. "I… well… um… It's fine."

Neither of them was aware of a pair of eyes watching them intently from the deck, belonging to a certain rubberman.

Zoro patted Hoshi's shoulder a little awkwardly. "I've got your back," he promised. Hoshi grinned for real and met his gaze with her aqua eyes. He blushed a little and looked away.

There was an awkward silence, and they both just stood there for a second, not saying anything…

"YOSH! Everyone gather round and watch as the great Usopp-sama takes a swim in the clouds!!" Usopp yelled, shattering the moment. Zoro quickly walked out of the mikan grove, and Hoshi followed right on his heels.

"Yay! Let's see it!" Luffy cheered.

"Usopp is so brave!!" Chopper yelled, stars in his eyes.

"Oi, don't do anything stupid," Sanji yelled. "We still don't know the nature of this sea!"

"Not to worry!" Usopp called back, then without another word, he dived off the ship.

"Oh damn," Hoshi muttered. The phoenix let off a scornful tremolo. _Nagahana stupid._

Yeah, Hoshi replied. He's going to get himself into trouble, can you just feel it?

The phoenix agreed.

Everyone waited in silence for a couple minutes.

"Usopp's so lucky… I wish I could swim too…" Luffy moaned, hanging over the railing.

"But then you wouldn't be a rubber-man, would you?" Hoshi asked. "Wasn't that the price of eating a Devil's Fruit?"

Luffy glanced over his shoulder at her and chuckled. "Yeah, that's true!" His stomach did a strange flip when he glanced at Hoshi watching him.

"Oi," Zoro said. "He's… not coming up."

Robin looked over to the spot where Usopp had disappeared. "Just a thought… is there a bottom to this sea?"

"There must be," Nami mused. "We came up through it…"

Dead silence.

"AH! That idiot!" Hoshi yelled. "Did he fall out of the cloud?!"

"Usopp!" Luffy shouted, stretching his arm.

"Stretch your arm as far as it will go," Robin instructed.

"But I can't see the bottom," Luffy argued.

"Leave it to me," Robin said. She crossed her arms across her chest and closed her eyes. "Ojos Fleurs!"

The crew waited, holding their breaths. Robin started to sweat, and she even shook a little. Everyone jumped when she suddenly said, "I see him!"

"Where!?" Luffy yelled, still stretching his arm.

"Veinte Fluers!" After a moment, Robin relaxed. "I've got him! You can pull him up now."

"Yosh!" Luffy pulled. He seemed to be straining a lot.

"… Is Usopp really that heavy?" Nami asked.

Hoshi felt a chill run down her back. She instinctively drew her whip from the air at the same moment Zoro placed a hand on his katana. Their eyes met for a second in complete understanding. Something was wrong…

And that SOMETHING showed itself as Usopp flew out of the water… um, cloud. With a tremendous roar, the cloud exploded as a giant octopus, misshapen-shark, and purple barracuda came out of the water, following the flying figure.

Chopper and Nami screamed. "THEY WANT TO EAT USOPP!"

"You don't have to be scared by these!" Zoro yelled as the fighters went into action.

The octopus, one leg sliced up by Zoro, deflated back into the cloud. The misshapen shark had its dorsal fin broken and its head caved in by Sanji, and it fell against the ship, a bump on its head. Hoshi pulled out her wings and flew thirty meters above the ship. When she reached that height, she pulled in her wings and dropped, and cracked her whip around the barracuda. She landed on it, then yanked. She yanked the whip so strongly that the barracuda's body was severed in two. It popped.

"Man…" said Hoshi, gasping and sweating. "This place… really takes… the breath out of you."

"Yeah…" Zoro panted. "What the hell… is going on?"

"But man, this is one strange fish," Sanji said, inspecting the misshapen shark. "I can't even tell if it's an animal or not."

"Yeah, that octopus was almost like a balloon," Luffy said.

"But they were moving, they have to be animals," Zoro pointed out.

"Animals in the sky?" Nami asked, disbelieving.

"So we really should think of this more as a sea rather than the sky," Robin said.

"AAAAAHHHHH!" Usopp yelled, from where he lay twitching on the floor. He reached crazily into his pants. "Something's in my overalls!" A flat blue fish flopped on the deck as Usopp fell back onto the deck himself, only half-conscious. "Sky Island scary… Sky Island scary…"

"Poor guy, he's had a rough day," Robin murmured, making Hoshi laugh.

Robin picked up the fish and smiled. "Do you think that this would be a Skyfish? Since this sea has no bottom, the animals here must have adapted to their environment," she said. Luffy yelled with excitement and came in for a closer look.

"Like becoming balloons or flattening out their bodies?" Hoshi asked.

"To reduce their density," Robin explained.

Luffy took the fish, laughing. "Sanji, look! Skyfish!"

"Its scales were like feathers, and it's unusual for a fish like that to be a carnivore," Nami said.

Everyone heard a noise and looked around. Sanji leaned against the wall, and Luffy was digging into a plate of fish.

"I sautéed it," Sanji said.

"IT'S SO GOOD!" Luffy yelled, eyes bugging out. Hoshi laughed.

"WE'RE NOT DONE LOOKING AT IT YET!!" Nami roared. "WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOI-" Luffy stuffed a bite into her mouth. Surprised, she chewed it. "Oh, you're right! It's delicious! What is it? I've never tasted a texture like this before!"

"I'm glad you like it, Nami-san!" Sanji laughed.

Zoro sweatdropped. Hoshi laughed, and he felt his stomach do a flip. He growled, and mentally told his stomach to stop doing that… but it didn't listen.

Chopper suddenly started freaking out. He had been sitting on the banister, looking through a pair of binoculars, but they dropped onto the deck with a thunk, and he started yelling. "S-ship…"

"What is it Chopper?" Sanji asked. "Is there a ship?"

"NO! I mean, yes there was, but it wasn't there anymore an-"

"What're you talking about?" Zoro asked, annoyed.

"There's a bull charging at us on a square cloud!" Chopper yelled hysterically.

"I don't get it, just calm down!" Zoro said sharply.

"The hell…" Sanji muttered. Hoshi started laughing again, but suddenly stopped as a chill raced down her back. The phoenix let loose an urgent note of warning. She whirled around, and spotted something…

"There's a person riding on top of the clouds!" she called. She drew her whip out of the air.

The person had on a huge square mask, making it impossible to see his face except for a pair of ruthless eyes.

"What do you want?" Luffy called.

"I SHALL REJECT YOU!" the person roared.

"He wants a fight!" Sanji growled as the strange person leaped onto the ship.

"Fine by me!" Hoshi grinned.

Sanji darted to attack, but the person kicked him against the wall… hard. Sanji didn't get up.

Zoro flew in with his swords unsheathed, but the man evaded them easily, and that ended with the man slamming his foot into Zoro's neck.

"Zoro!" Hoshi yelled as he slammed into the side of the ship. Unfurling her wings, she flew in for the attack. "Damn you!" she roared.

The man, seeing Hoshi, went for her next. She cracked her whip around his ankle and hurled him into the mast, but the guy twisted and jumped off the mast… to come straight for her again. Caught unprepared, Hoshi yelped as she was knocked into the air. The man aimed a lethal-looking gun towards her…

"HOSHI!" Zoro yelled. The man fired, and Hoshi disappeared with a boom in a cloud of smoke. Her body fell and landed into the cloud ocean.

"Bastard!" Luffy yelled. "Hurting my nakama… you'll pay! GOMU GOMU NO PIS- argh!!" The man kicked Luffy viciously in the face, not allowing Luffy to finish his attack. He jumped off of Luffy's face high into the air and aimed his gun at the ship…

"THAT'S ENOUGH!!" a voice boomed. Another man came flying down on top of the masked man with a jousting pole. The masked man's shield shattered, and he fell into the cloud ocean.

Zoro didn't see it happen… he had jumped overboard the second he got up. Hoshi was in here somewhere… but visibility in this water was so damn low. He needed to find Hoshi quickly before she fell out of the bottom of the cloud.

After a couple minutes, a little air bubble unexpectedly hit his face. He realized instantly what it meant, and dove straight down. Squinting through the water… er, cloud… he saw a faint shadow below. He increased his speed. He saw that the shadow was Hoshi. She was floating down through the cloud, and her eyes were half open. _Is it possible to drown in a cloud?_ Zoro thought with a flare of fear.

He grabbed her around the waist and pulled her upwards. He prayed he wasn't going to be too late… _Hoshi, don't die here, damn you. If you die, I will kill you._

He reached the surface. Pulling Hoshi's head above the cloud, he shook her shoulders. "Oi! Hoshi! Snap out of it!" he ordered. Hoshi didn't obey. Her eyes were closed, and she was completely limp, water streaming out of her hair.

"Oh damn…" Zoro muttered. He got her back onto the ship as the man with the jousting pole was telling the crew that he was the Knight of the Sky. He paid no attention, concentrating his efforts on reviving Hoshi.

"Hoshi! Snap out of it!" he said, slapping her face a couple times.

"Hoshi! Is she alright!?" Luffy shouted.

"Ah! Hoshi-chan needs CPR!" Sanji yelled, a heart in his eye. "I'll give it to her!"

"You stay right there," Zoro growled. Sanji was about to argue, but he stopped when Zoro gave him a death glare… one that was completely different from the usual death glares that he normally gave. Luffy noticed the quality of the glare, but didn't say anything. Sanji fell silent.

Hoshi still wasn't breathing. Zoro felt panic starting to eat a corner of his mind, but he impatiently squashed it under a mental thumb.

"Oi, Hoshi, don't die on me dammit," he muttered. He dug the bases of his hands into her stomach and pushed upwards. Water flowed out of Hoshi's mouth, but she still didn't move…

"Don't die…"

Hoshi suddenly sat up and began coughing madly. She alternated between choking and coughing, taking breaks in between to breathe. Zoro just watched her as the spasms died down, his face expressionless.

"Ah shit, my arms hurt like hell," were Hoshi's first words.

**Who is this 'Knight of the Sky'? Who was the masked man, and why did he attack the ship? And where exactly IS Sky Island, 'cause it's sure not here!**

**So that's it for this chapter! I am debating whether to put Hoshi with Zoro or Luffy, so I want your opinions! I'm not posting the next chapter till I get at least three reviews on this one, so click the nice button!**


	2. Knight of the Sky

**Author's Note: Thank you for the reviews! Here's chapter two for all of ya!**

**Disclaimer: One Piece is not mine, don't own it, how many times do I have to say it?!**

Chapter Two: Knight of the Sky

Hoshi continued to cough.

"AH! YOUR ARMS ARE BURNED!" Chopper yelled. "Doctor! Doc- oh, that's me."

Chopper bandaged up Hoshi's arms as Zoro watched with impassive eyes. It was impossible to tell what he was thinking. Hoshi grinned at him, though she kept coughing, seeing he was wet. "You cough saved me again, didn't you? cough Thanks!"

Zoro felt heat rising in his cheeks. "No problem," he muttered, looking away.

Hoshi noticed the man in armor standing on the balcony. She narrowed her eyes and spat out bit of water. "Who the hell are you?" she asked dangerously, suppressing her coughs for a minute.

"I am the Knight of the Sky," the old man in armor answered, unfazed by Hoshi's glare.

"He saved all our lives!" Chopper said. Usopp was recovering from his shock (falling out of the cloud, see chapter one), and was sitting up and mumbling incoherent words to himself.

Hoshi looked at the Knight of the Sky again. He wore a full suit of armor. His face was wrinkled and his cheeks were sunken in, but he had a long pointy beard and a matching mustache that reached a several inches past his chin. A black cape hung loosely over his shoulders. A jousting post was held over one shoulder, and in his eyes was the look of a man who had seen things he hadn't wanted to see. She nodded slowly, still a little suspicious.

"Just what is going on!? What's happening!? And what's more… what's wrong with you four?" Nami asked the ship's fighters, who were all gasping on the deck. "That was totally pathetic! All four of you at once couldn't take on that masked dude!"

Chopper bowed to the old man. "Thank you for saving us," he said on behalf of the whole crew.

"No need for thanks. This is a service," the Knight of the Sky said gruffly.

"Damn, this is such a disappointment…" Sanji gasped, sweating.

Hoshi coughed again. She shook the water out of her hair and coughed some more.

"You okay?" Zoro asked. Hoshi nodded and stood up.

"It must be because the air's so thin," Robin stated.

"Now that I think about it… that makes sense…" Luffy said from where he lay, gasping on the floor. Everyone sweatdropped. Since when does Luffy ever think? Hoshi walked over and kicked him affectionately on the head.

"Moron," she said, her eyes teasing.

"Are you all Blue Sea dwellers?" asked the Knight of the Sky

"Blue Sea Dwellers? What's that? And exactly WHO are you?" Nami asked.

The man tsked. "You're so full of questions, aren't you? Blue Sea Dwellers are what we call those who live below the clouds. I presume you all traveled up from the Blue Sea?"

"Yeah, that's right," Luffy answered.

"Then this is no surprise. You all are on the White Sea, about 7,000 meters above the Blue Sea. Farther up is the White-White Sea, another 3,000 meters up. Ordinarily Blue Sea Dwellers' bodies cannot handle the change in pressure."

Luffy sat up and thumped his chest. "Yosh, I think I'm getting used to it."

"Yeah, I feel a lot better than before," Zoro said.

The Knight of the Sky sweatdropped. "No, no, no, it doesn't work like that," the old man told them.

"I'm actually surprised you guys can move at all. I'm more used to pressure changes since I can- since my body is specially built for pressure change," Hoshi said, changing what she was about to say with a quick glance at the old man. She wasn't sure if she could trust him yet.

"I have to know!" Nami burst. "How was that guy riding on top of the clouds? Who was he? Why'd he att-"

"Yield, yield, yield, I am certain you all have many questions for me," the old man said, holding up one hand to cut off the flow of questions. "But first we must talk of business."

"Business?" Nami asked.

"I am a free mercenary, and this is a sea of many dangers," he explained. "Since you do not know the battle of the sky, you all will be easy targets for the guerillas and the Skyfish. One whistle, and I will rescue you for a price of 5,000,000 Extols."

Zoro, Hoshi, Sanji, and Luffy all turned their heads to one side. "What're you talking about Ossan?" Luffy asked.

The Knight of the Sky threw up his hands. "You fool! It's a small price to pay for your life! I will not take one Extol less! I have to make a living you know!"

"But what is this Extol thing you're talking about?" Hoshi asked, feeling the first pinpricks of irritation.

"And what do you mean by 'whistle'?" Zoro asked.

The old man looked stunned. "You mean you all did not come here by the way of High West? But you must have stopped by at least one or two islands on the way!"

"C'mon, what are you talking about Ossan?" Luffy said, starting to look annoyed.

"Hang on, you say that there are other ways to get to this cloud sea?!" Nami asked. Hoshi took one look at her face and then quickly grabbed a confused Zoro to hide behind the mast.

"You mean that you all-"

"We rode the Knock-Up Stream here," Hoshi called from behind the mast.

"You rode that monstrous current here?! To think that there are souls still brave enough to do that…"

Everyone else shivered, took look one look at Nami's face and moved like lightening to hide behind the mast with Hoshi, along with the rest of the crew… except for Luffy, who didn't notice what was going on until Nami had him by the throat.

"I KNEW THAT WASN'T A NORMAL WAY UP HERE!" she roared. "I THOUGHT WE WERE GONNA DIE! IF WE HAD GATHERED MORE INFORMATION WE COULD HAVE HAD AN EASIER TRIP!!! IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT FOR BEING SO IMPATIENT!!"

"B-but we're h-here now, s-so it's all g-good!" Luffy choked.

"NO IT ISN'T YOU MORON!! IDIOT! WE ALL ALMOST DIED DAMMIT!!"

Usopp quietly lay down in a funeral position and started to mutter, "Sky Island scary, Nami scary, Sky Island scary, Nami sca-"

"**WHO'S** SCARY!?"

Everyone shouted and ran away as Nami threw Luffy onto the ground and started chasing after all the rest of them. They ran around in crazy patterns around the deck.

"Outta my WAY! Outta my WAY!!" Hoshi screamed.

"AAAAHHHH!" was the monotonous yell emitting from Chopper and Usopp.

"Damn, she's like a demon," Zoro muttered.

"Ah! Nami-san's so cute when she's mad!" Sanji sang, floating on his little pink cloud.

"Where the hell did that cloud come from?" Zoro asked. Hoshi laughed at that, and Zoro felt his stomach do another flip. He growled. What was with him lately?!

Robin was the only one who hadn't started running. She looked up as the old man said something. "What did you say again?" she called over the shouting.

"Did you loose any of your crew on your way here?" the old man shouted.

"Nope! We all made it!" Luffy called as he ran past. Hoshi got tired of running and stopped. She stood in Nami's path and doinked the side of her hand onto Nami's forehead.

"That's enough," she said. "Let's listen to what the walking tin can has to say."

The Knight of the Sky sweatdropped and the uncalled-for nickname, but he continued. "The other routes would not have been so merciful. If you bring one hundred people, it's just a gamble to how many will survive. Coming up the Knock-Up Stream, you either all live or you all die." He looked at the bunch of kids in front of him with new eyes. "There are few like you who are willing to risk loosing everything in one shot… especially in recent years. I have great respect for you brave navigators!"

Nami looked stunned, but someone took the compliment into full stride.

"Well," said the miraculously recovered Usopp, "It was the course I picked after all. At the time, all these guys were crying and afraid for their lives, but I said, 'The great Captain Usopp-sama is the navigator, so you all- owww…" Hoshi had reached over and pulled his cheek before Nami could kill him.

"WHO was crying and afraid for his life again?" she asked pleasantly enough, aqua eyes teasing. Nami was twitching, stress marks appearing all over her face.

The 'walking tin can' threw a small silver whistle into the air. "One whistle means blowing sharply into this. I will descend from heaven itself to lend you aid," he said gallantly, dramatically turning his back to the crew to look out over the sea, his black cape snapping in the non-existent wind.

Hoshi sweatdropped. "That is so cheesy…"

"I normally ask 5,000,000 Extols for future visits, but for you guys… I will give you one whistle as a present," he said, preparing to leave.

"Wait! We don't even know your name!" Nami said urgently.

He turned. "I am the Knight of the Sky, Gan Fall!"

"Whatever, he's still walking tin can Ossan to me…" Hoshi mumbled, inspecting the whistle.

"This is my partner, Pierre!" A pink bird with black spots and an obnoxiously long yellow beak squawked as it heard its name.

"I should have mentioned that my partner is a bird who has eaten and gain the ability of the Uma Uma (horse) fruit…"

The bird began to transform before everyone's stunned eyes.

"Meaning he can become a winged horse!!" Gan Fall roared triumphantly.

"How beautiful, a Pegasus!" Nami exclaimed, seeing the bird's outline in the FX transformation light.

"Yes, a Pegasus!" The 'Pegasus' came into full view… it was still pink with black spots, was bucktoothed, and its wings were also pink with black spots… it wasn't that much different actually, except the shape of its body had changed into a lanky horse.

"That's… questionable," everyone on the crew said simultaneously.

"Brave souls! May luck be with you!" Gan Fall cried as he rode off on the back of the bird-horse… thingamabober.

"Was there any real point in it changing?" Zoro asked, his eyebrow twitching.

"Who knows…" Hoshi answered, sweatdropping.

"In the end, he didn't really tell us much," Robin said as she held out her hand for the silver whistle. Hoshi dropped it into her hand. "We still don't know which direction to go from here."

"Well, if we blow the whistle, he'll come back," Sanji commented.

"More importantly, how are we going to get higher?" Zoro asked irritably. Hoshi nodded in agreement. If it was only her, she could just fly higher… but then again, she probably wouldn't be doing this to begin with.

"Yosh! I'll call the Ossan and ask him!" Luffy grinned. He opened his mouth and took a deep breath, but was attacked by a long-nosed teen and a carrot-headed navigator.

"H-h-h-hang on Luffy! We're only gonna use that in an emergency!" Nami yelled in his ear as she stretched it as far as she could.

"What if the weirdo in the mast shows up again?!" Usopp demanded, squeezing Luffy's neck.

Hoshi sweatdropped. "Um… is he alright…?"

"Anyway, let's get this ship higher," Zoro said, bonking Usopp and Luffy on the head.

"Hey, look over there," Chopper said, pointing towards starboard. There was a cylindral column leading towards the layer of clouds above.

Everyone looked. "There's like a waterfall thingummy over there," Hoshi said, squinting.

"Clouds won't naturally make that sort of shape…" Nami mused.

"Yosh! Then let's go over there!" Luffy yelled. "To the weird lookin' cloud!!"

"Aye…" everyone said uncertainly.

Everyone helped turn the ship to starboard and they started sailing, but they hadn't sailed for long when a huge cloud that was sticking out of the ocean blocked their way.

"It's a cloud…" Chopper said.

"Several large clouds seem to be blocking our way," Robin commented.

"It's sticking out of the ocean though, so it's probably not part of it," Hoshi pointed out.

"What kind of clouds would they be then?" Sanji mused. Zoro leaned on the banister and said nothing.

"Well if they're ordinary clouds, we can sail right through them," Nami said, shrugging.

"Yosh! I'll punch one and find out!" Luffy said as he stretched his arm back. He punched the cloud, and his arm bounced right off with a springy sound. There was silence… then…

Luffy's eyes got big. "It bounced off!" he yelled, jumping onto the cloud. Everyone stared in astonishment as the captain started bouncing around on the cloud. "Look! I'm bouncing!" he called. "I'm not sinking! It's so soft! Just like cotton! What is it? What is it? What is it? It's almost TOO fun!"

"AWESOME!" Chopper yelled, hearts in his eyes.

"What a strange phenomenon," Nami mused.

"Quite mysterious," Robin agreed.

"I want to get on it! Wait for me Luffy!" Hoshi yelled, leaping over the banister.

"Me too!" Usopp called, following Hoshi off the ship. Chopper quickly followed Usopp, screaming with anticipation.

Luffy had stopped bouncing and was reclining on the cloud. "Ahh… this feels nice. It's so warm, I think I might fall asleep… it's more comfortable than a thousand futons. WOAH!!" This last part was caused as he was unexpectedly bounced into the air by three laughing figures. They all started bouncing around like crazy, laughing and screaming. Hoshi wasn't even trying to bounce… rather, it was more like she was trying to breathe from laughing so hard. Zoro felt something warm flash across his chest as he watched.

"But… this means we can't get through wherever these clouds are," Nami muttered. "Hey!" she yelled. "Look for a route that the ship can use while you're up there!"

"Yosh!" Luffy called down. "I'll lo-"

"Oi! Luffy!" Hoshi yelled. "There's something over here!"

"Really!? I'm coming!" He started running along the edge of the cloud to reach her stark black figure among the white clouds.

"OI!! ARE YOU LISTENING TO ME!?" Nami screamed in frustration.

Hoshi was lying down, but when she stood up, she realized too late that the captain was running with his eyes closed, again… after a spectacular crash, they both fell into the cloud ocean.

I'm gonna kill him later for this, Hoshi thought as she grabbed Luffy under his shoulders and dragged him to the surface. But right now, there was something she needed to tell Nami…

"A gate?" Nami asked a couple minutes later, after she had stomped on Luffy's chest to bring him back to life. Usopp had come down to listen, though Chopper was still enjoying the cloud-trampoline thing.

"Yeah… there's like this huge gate under the waterfall-looking thing," Hoshi said.

Usopp choked as Chopper fell on his head. He stumbled and ran into Hoshi, causing her to fall onto Luffy's chest and pin him against the banister. There was an uncomfortable second when their faces were about two inches away from each other, then they both blushed.

"Sorry," Hoshi mumbled. Luffy looked away and didn't say anything about the warm spots on his chest where Hoshi's hands had been. Desperate for something to do, she whacked Usopp on the head. "Damn Usopp, watch where you're falling!"

Zoro watched with an impassive face as Usopp apologized. Something peculiar was moving around inside of him…

Taking no notice of this, Nami looked in the direction of the waterfall cloud. "So there's something man-made here?"

"Nothing is out of the question on this sea," Robin replied.

"Well whatever! We'll find out when we get there!" Luffy said, jumping up and pointing in the general direction of the waterfall. "LET'S GO!"

**I still want to know who wants LuffyxHoshi, or ZoroxHoshi. 'Kay, you all know the drill! I don't submit the next chapter till three of you press the little button, so clicky!! **


	3. The Gate of Heaven

**Author's Note: THANKS SO MUCH for the kind reviews! Still deciding on the pairing, I've got mixed stuff here...**

**Disclaimer: Don't own One Piece, get off my back and don't sue me…**

Chapter Three: The Gate of Heaven

Nami glanced over at Hoshi. "Hoshi, could you scout a route for us?" the carrot-topped navigator asked. Hoshi grinned.

"No problem," she said, pulling out her wings. She jumped straight into the air, clipping the deck with her first downward flap, before she gained altitude and she flew about twenty meters and circled.

Zoro watched her, seeing her trim black figure outlined by her snow-white wings. His face was guarded as usual, but there was a tenderness in his eyes as he watched her fly. She looked so free…

His train of thought was interrupted by a lively little melody drifting down from the sky. Hoshi had taken out her silver flute, and was piping a song as she led the ship. It was a happy tune that made his heart lift. Luffy started square-dancing with Usopp and the both of them were laughing like crazy. Chopper was sitting on the banister and crying 'cause he was laughing so hard at the silly pair. Zoro glanced at his nakama, then looked skyward and grinned.

Suddenly, the tune stopped. "Everyone! We're almost there!" Hoshi called down. The crew looked, but all they could see was a giant cloud in front of them.

"Are you sure?" Luffy yelled. "We can't see past this big cloud!"

"You can't, but I can!" Hoshi called from ten meters above the ship's mast. "If we get around this cloud, we'll be there!"

"Can you see a way around this cloud Hoshi?" Nami shouted.

"Give me a minute!" Hoshi flew up and up… and up… and up…, then came back with a big negative. "The cloud stretches as far as I can see… It might even go to the end of the cumulorgalis cloud!"

"Should I just cut it out of the way?" Zoro asked.

The orange-haired navigator sighed. "We might have to do that…"

"Why?" Hoshi asked, touching down and pulling in her wings.

Nami got a stress mark on her head. "We can't just sail right through it Hoshi, we saw know that already!"

"Why?" Hoshi asked again. "It's a cloud."

"Did you forget about the solid clouds already?" Nami raged.

"No…"

"THEN WHY ARE YOU ASKING 'WHY'?!"

"'Cause those clouds aren't solid."

"THAT IS ONE OF THE STUPIDEST REASONS I'VE HEARD ALL DA- huh? The cloud isn't solid?!"

"No."

The crew started stifling laughter at the sight of Nami's face, though once her eye turned on them, they miraculously put on straight faces. Nami turned back to Hoshi and pointed an accusing finger at raven-haired hybrid. "You're lying!"

"No I'm not!" Hoshi said indignantly. "Look! I'll show you!"

With this, Hoshi pulled out her wings and jumped off the deck. Once she had gained enough altitude, she turned her course on the cloud…

And flew straight into it.

Luffy's eyes bugged out as Hoshi flew back out, soaking wet but grinning. She landed on the deck and shook herself off, wings and all, spraying water everywhere.

"Told you so," Hoshi said. "We can sail right through it!"

"How'd you figure that?" Zoro asked in disbelief. "It looks just like all the other clouds?"

Hoshi shrugged. "Er… I don't know really… Instinct?" she asked, cocking one eyebrow at him.

He grinned at her. "Good enough."

Luffy wasn't paying any attention. "YOSH! Make a course straight through the cloud!"

"… wait a second, if it's a cloud, can we breathe inside it?" Sanji asked, taking a puff on his cigarette.

A pause… then everyone turned to look at Hoshi, as she was the only one who had actually been inside the cloud. She shook her head, wet locks of hair flopping over her eyes. Pushing them back, she said, "You can't breathe inside clouds… not without bringing your own air. And the cloud is about seventy meters thick. There's no way we could hold our breaths for as long as it would take for the ship to get through."

"Oh…" A disappointed air rose from the crew as they pondered what to do. Hoshi lasted a moment before bursting into laugher. "Did you guys already forget that we can bring our own air with us?"

"How the hell are we going to do that?" Usopp demanded. Hoshi laughed harder.

When she got herself under control, she grinned at them all. "I can control air!"

Nami slapped herself in the head. "That's right!"

Zoro frowned. "But remember? When you defended the ship from that Shojo monkey's sound waves, you were exhausted afterwards."

Hoshi waggled her finger at Zoro. "That was different. I was trying to hold the air still, because sound waves are vibrations in the air. Now is different. It takes less energy for me to make a bubble because the volume of air that I actually need to control is less."

Zoro continued to look disbelieving, but Nami clapped a hand on Hoshi's shoulder. "Don't mind him, his brain couldn't get something like that," she said forlornly. Hoshi snickered.

A stress mark appeared on Zoro's head. "I understood," he said in an annoyed tone. "I just don't want Ho-"

A glint appeared in Nami's eye. "You don't want _Hoshi_ to what?" she asked in an evil tone.

Zoro flushed, but tried to hide it by being playing dumb. "What the hell are you getting at?"

Nami's evil grin became even wider. "C'mon Zoro, you know what I'm talking about. Do you not want dear _Hoshi_ to tire herself out?"

"What the hell…" Zoro muttered, turning his back on Nami, who grinned more evilly than ever.

"Do you LOVE Hoshi, Zoro?" she asked in a stage whisper. The others began to giggle as the green-haired swordsman turned redder than ever… except for Luffy, who didn't have any expression on his face, and Hoshi, who was confused by the sudden change in conversation.

"So… do you guys want to get through the cloud?" Hoshi asked, though she was unheard over the giggles. She was completely lost, because in calculating how much energy it would take to make a big bubble around the ship, she had missed the last part of the conversation.

"C'mon Zoro, spill it or I'll charge you," Nami warned.

"… charge Zoro for what? Spill what?" Hoshi asked, completely flummoxed.

"Yes, are we going through the cloud or what?!" Zoro demanded, glad to get away from this subject.

"AFTER you answer the question!" Nami smirked. Usopp and Chopper were barely containing their laughter, Robin was looking placidly amused, Sanji looked murderous and Luffy just had an expressionless look on his face.

Zoro made a choked sound and leaned back, waving both hands in the air in front of him and blushing furiously. "What the hell!" he shouted. "We're supposed to go to Sky Island!"

"Answer the question!"

Usopp was falling over himself with laughter. "Look at… how red he is!" he gasped.

"What the hell… is going on?" Hoshi asked, her eyebrow twitching.

"I think," Usopp gasped, "Zoro really likes y-"

"We need to get to the weird gate thing, remember!?" Zoro yelled before Usopp could finish.

"I like Zoro," Hoshi said, confused. Everyone stopped laughing to stare at her in astonishment, though at her next words, they all relaxed. "I like everyone on the ship. That's not really a funny thing, is it? And are we going through the cloud or not?" she demanded.

Nami poked Zoro in the chest. "You're not off the hook yet… just lettin' you know."

"Damn woman, can't you just leave a guy alone?" Zoro demanded.

"Oi you shitty Marimo head! Who do you think you are talking to Nami-san like that!" Sanji growled.

"Whatever." Zoro sulked off and settled down for a brief nap for their trip through the cloud.

"Okay, everyone, pull us into the cloud! Hoshi, make your bubble around the ship!" Nami said, barking out orders as usual.

"AYE!" everyone responded.

Hoshi sat down and closed her eyes. A power hummed the air for a second, then disappeared. She opened her eyes and grinned at the crew. "All set!"

"Yosh, everyone straight ahead!" Nami shouted. The ship moved forward… and everyone gaped as the clouds bulged inwardly and enveloped them inside a bubble.

"Wow Hoshi, you're amazing!" Luffy yelled, running around the ship.

Hoshi grinned. Hearing that she was amazing was a nice change from the laboratory responses…

_"Oh my gosh, its heart rate only increased by thirteen percent…"_

_"Look at how it controls the wind! Spectacular!"_

_"How in the world did it do that? It got out of the maze in only four minutes!"_

She grimaced and shook her head to get rid of the echoes. That was the past now, and she was never, ever, going to go back. To get her mind off it, she walked up to Zoro's sleeping form and poked him. "Zoro? Neh, Zoro, are you alive?"

Zoro sleepily opened one eye. "Oh it's you. What do you want?" he asked grumpily.

"Nothing… just wanted to have something fun to do."

"Poking me awake is your idea of fun?"

"Yup!"

"… do you have anything better to do?" he asked irritably. A nap would have been very stress-relieving, but it looked like that wasn't going to happen.

"Nope, not till we get through this cloud," Hoshi said brightly… a little too brightly.

"What's on your mind?" he asked, opening both eyes. "You're sounding obnoxiously happy, even for you."

Hoshi shrugged. "Nothin'."

"Yeah right."

Hoshi didn't respond, but perched herself onto the banister and bounced her heels off the railing. "I am in the craziest crew known to mankind," she muttered, looking around at the cloud they were inside.

Zoro raised his eyebrow at the subject change, but didn't comment on it. "We do some crazy stuff," he agreed. "But that's what you get for following Luffy."

They grinned at each other, and Hoshi groaned. "I sure picked one hell of a ship to drop in on." Zoro chuckled.

At that moment, they cleared the cloud, and everyone shielded their eyes against the sudden burst of light. Hoshi released the bubble, and a little wave of cool air washed over the ship.

When everyone's eyes had cleared, in front of them was the huge gate Hoshi had mentioned. Nami read the enscribed on the overhead arch. "The sign says… 'Heaven's Gate'…a gate to Heaven!?"

Usopp started freaking out. "OI, is this a joke?! It's like we're all going to die!! D-d-does this mean we're all dead?!"

Sanji lit is cigarette and shrugged. "Who knows?"

Zoro smirked evilly. "Maybe we're all dead already!"

Usopp collapsed on the deck in a sobbing heap.

Hoshi prodded him with her foot. "Moron, we're not dead," she muttered. "I'd know if we were."

Luffy had stars in his eyes. "Heaven huh? Sounds like fun! Finally goin' there!"

Nami punched him in the head the same time Hoshi did. "Idiot," said Nami.

"I already said, 'we're not dead yet', how many times do I have to say it?!"

"Hey, someone's coming out," Sanji interrupted. Everyone looked in the direction he was pointing.

A little door opened on the side, and a wrinkled old lady with her grey hair tucked into bun. She had two strange antennae looking to be part of her hair perched on her head. But almost strangest of all… there were two strange wings on her back. Hoshi raised one eyebrow at the sight of the strange wings. They were much too small to carry an infant into the air, much less a …er… half-sized adult. She came out clicking away on a strange, pink, flash camera.

Hoshi narrowed her eyes and stared coldly at the old lady.

"On her back!! Wings!" Chopper yelled in astonishment.

"It's an angel!" Luffy said, stars in his eyes.

"Are angels supposed to look like prunes?" asked Sanji.

Merry stopped under the arch, and there was a rather awkward silence. Finally, Nami spoke up. "E-excuse me…"

"I am the appointed lookout of Heaven's Gate, Amazon. Are you here to sightsee or fight?" asked the old pruney-angel person.

Nami was taken aback. "Fighting? We're sightseeing then, I guess…"

"We want to go to Sky Island!" Luffy cut in. "It's on the other side of this gate, right?"

"What do you mean 'fighting'?" Zoro asked.

Amazon was silent, then answered, "It doesn't matter which."

Hoshi felt her hackles rising.

"Just pay the immigration fee of 1,000,000,000 Extols and be on your way," Amazon finished.

"There's that 'Extol' thing again," Sanji muttered.

Usopp was counting on his fingers. "There're eight of us… so that would be … 8,000,000,000 Extols! Holy crap, whatever an Extol is that's got to be a lot of money!"

"Why the hell do we need to pay so much? We're only going in," Hoshi muttered. "The old granny must've had her wires cr-" Nami slapped her hand over Hoshi's mouth.

"Excuse me," the carrot-top called down sweetly. "About the money…if by some chance, we didn't have enough…"

"You can pass."

Usopp fell down.

"Or you can also not pass. I'm not here to stop you from doing anything. I only listen to your will."

"Okay… then old lady! We're not going to pay, but we're going through!" Luffy called.

"I see! Seven of you, yes?"

"No, there's eight of us," Hoshi said. The old lady didn't seem to hear her.

"So how do we get up to Sky Island?" Luffy asked.

As if to answer that question, two giant red claws came and grabbed the remains of what had been Merry's wings. Panic broke out on board.

"WHAT IS IT!?" Chopper yelled, crying.

"Inhabitant of the White Sea: the Speedy Shrimp," Amazon answered.

Suddenly, the ship zoomed off.

"WHOA!! IT'S A HUGE SHRIMP!" Zoro yelled.

"Oh, Sanji! Let's eat it!" Luffy shouted.

"It's moving up the waterfall!" Hoshi murmured, still suspicious about the old woman. She didn't know what to think… why were they allowed to go through without paying the fee? The phoenix let out a confused sound, echoing Hoshi's own confusion. She felt uneasy as they zoomed up the spiral falls. What was going to happen next? Something told Hoshi that their day had only just begun. She grinned. Whatever was coming, it was going to be one hell of an adventure.

**And that's where I'll stop for today! You know the drill! Not postin' the next chapter till FOUR of you this time press the little button! This method of making people review seems to work, so I'm going to keep on doing it!**


	4. Angel Beach

**Author's Note: Thanks for the reviews! Still deciding on the pairing, but I've gotten mixed reviews.**

Fire Thief: WHOOPWHOOPWHOOPWHOOP! Zoro and Hoshi all da way girl!

ShadowMoonGoddess: I think Hoshi should be paired with Luffy. It's more fun and mysterious that way.

Echo of the Ethereal Swordsman: PLEASE BE ZOROXHOSHI PAIRING!

**I'm still thinking about it… keep up the reviews though!**

**Disclaimer: do I even have to say it anymore?**

Chapter Four: Angel Island

Everyone was hanging on tightly as the ship continued to zoom ever higher on the back of the shrimp.

"What's going to happen now?" Hoshi wondered aloud while hanging onto the banister.

"Who knows?" Zoro answered.

"This belt of cloud's almost like a river," Sanji said, wondering.

Suddenly the ship started to buck and roll like a roller coaster as the cloud column did. Chopper almost flew off the ship, but Robin sprouted two hands to catch him. Zoro put his foot on Usopp's head to stop him from sliding off the ship, and Nami accidentally crashed into Sanji, who swooned and immediately picked her up bridal style.

Ignoring the cook, Nami kept an eye on their route… not that she had much control over it, but it made her feel better. "I can't imagine that this formed naturally…"

"There's nothing natural about this," Usopp moaned.

Hoshi scrambled about halfway up the rigging and faced the wind, whooping with delight.

Luffy was hanging on to the red thing attached to Merry's head, shouting with glee as the ship raced up through the cloud. Suddenly, a bright light shone at the end of the crazy route.

"The exit!" Chopper yelled. A golden sign came into view.

"Godland… Skypia," Robin read as they raced past it.

There was a moment of awed silence, before Luffy broke it. "It's not an exit… IT'S AN ENTRANCE!!!" he laughed.

Everyone stood, watching the incoming light. Hoshi whooped and punched the air ahead with her fist, cropped hair streaming back from her face. "Here we go!!" she yelled, as they burst up and out of the layer of cloud.

Luffy's eyes, predictably, cleared first. Even as everyone was still rubbing their eyes from the sudden burst of light, he was dancing around the deck. "An island!!!" he yelled. "IT'S **SKY ISLAND**!!!!"

An island built out of the cloud swam into view. There was a thriving metropolis, and a stunning beach. Two twin beanstalks twined and disappeared from view, even higher into the air. Trees grew out of the cloud, lining the beach. The city had two layers… one on the beach front, and one on higher ground, er, cloud, and a tall staircase leading up from the beach to the second layer.

"Hey… that sign said 'Skypia', didn't it?" Robin asked.

"Yes! It was the same name on the map Luffy found!" Nami answered. "The galleon that fell on us… they looked at this same sight over 200 years ago!!"

An awed silence fell… either from the thought of the passage of time or the fact that Sky Island actually existed, depending on the individual.

Minutes later, they arrived at the shore.

Luffy stretched, took a deep breath, and laughed. "What is this place? It just reeks of adventure!!" he yelled as he jumped overboard.

"Oi, hang on Luffy, you idiot! Don't jump into the ocean!" Usopp yelled, diving overboard.

"It's shallow enough to stand," Luffy said… too late, as Usopp crashed headfirst into the ground.

"Oi, you alright?" Luffy asked, leaning over Usopp's figure.

He sat up, soaking wet and seemingly unharmed, with an astonished look on his face. He faced Luffy. "Is… is this island made of that fluffy cloud?"

"Feels like it!" Luffy grinned.

"It's the fluffy cloud!"

They both stared at each other for a second, then for some reason known only to themselves, they started cracking up.

"Let's go ashore!" Luffy cheered, dancing onto the cloud beach.

"Me too!" Chopper called, jumping off the ship.

"I'm going to go change," Nami informed everyone. "Hoshi! Why don't you come too?"

A surprised look crossed Hoshi's face, before she grinned. "Okay."

"Oi, Luffy, what about the anchor? There's no bottom here right?" Zoro yelled.

Luffy turned back, a grin cracking his face in two. "Aw, who cares?" he said.

Usopp grinned and bumped Luffy on one side. "Who cares?" he laughed.

The pair started singing and bumping each other two the beat. "Who cares? Who cares? Who cares?"

"Me too!" Chopper yelled, grabbing Usopp's leg and hanging on.

Zoro sighed, and picked up the anchor. It stuck halfway out of the water. He nodded and looked at the island again. "Man, this scenery is a real eye opener," he muttered.

"Isn't it?" Hoshi came up, surprising him. She was dressed in light blue T-shirt, a darker blue flower blooming on her left sleeve. She also had a pair of black shorts and a black armband around her left forearm. Her crystal still sparkled around her throat, same as ever.

"It's like a dream," she said, stretching.

"Yeah, it really is," Sanji agreed. "And the way those three are enjoying themselves… you just can't help yourself here," he said, talking off his shoes. He whooped and did a couple of flips off the side of the ship.

Zoro and Hoshi sweatdropped. "You're doing it too." They looked at each other and grinned.

Nami screamed from inside the cabin, accompanied by a furious squawking. Zoro and Hoshi looked at the door with some confusement. She ran out the door, a purple and yellow bird pecking her furiously on the head. "Sorry, sorry!" she yelled.

Finding itself outside, it flew off in a huff. Nami, dressed in a bikini and knee-long brown pants with an orange belt, collapsed onto the deck. "We brought the Southbird with us," she moaned. "We forgot to release it."

Hoshi roared with laughter, clutching her belly.

"Well, it looks like people live here too," Zoro pointed out, grinning. "We don't have to worry about him; birds take care of themselves."

Nami was still clutching her aching head when she remembered something. "Oh yeah, what about the anchor?"

Zoro pointed downwards. "It stuck to the cloud. It looks like the fluffy cloud is the ground for this island."

"That means that this island is floating on the sea," Robin said, coming out of the cabin. She had also changed, dressed in long, dark purple pants, an orange belt with a white trim, a yellow tank top, and an armband decorated with strings of thin white fabric on her left upper arm. "But I'd wonder if it always stays in the same place."

Nami grinned. "Well, nothing to do but try," she said, walking to the banister. "The truth is that there are a lot of things here that are hard to believe, but at least we know we've arrived at Sky Island." She vaulted over the side of the ship. "Look! I've felt it myself! There's nothing to be scared of! Come on you guys! You'll feel better once your feet touch it!" she called, running to the beach.

Robin looked a little uneasy. Hoshi put a hand on her shoulder and grinned. "We can't change the way this island's natural forces work," she pointed out. "If we can't change it, what's the point of worrying? Right, Robin?"

Robin made eye contact with those bright aqua eyes, but said nothing. Hoshi laughed. "Come on! We've arrived at a new island we know absolutely nothing about, but we're going to learn more about it sooner or later so why worry? Navigating and landing anywhere new is a fun adventure! Especially on this ship."

Hoshi held eye contact until Robin smiled and relaxed. Hoshi whooped and pulled out her wings. She jumped over the edge, and used them to coast over the cloud ocean until she was right over the beach. Pulling them in right before she landed, a spray of cloud water marked her landing. Looking back, she waved at the two remaining figures on the ship, laughing.

Zoro smiled and waved back. Robin looked at him. "You really do care for Hoshi, don't you?" she asked.

The green-haired swordsman froze in mid-wave, his face turning red. Robin smiled, but didn't pry. She looked at the island through new eyes. "The smell of adventure… navigating and landing is an adventure… I've never thought of it that way before," she murmured.

Zoro gave her a strange look, but she leaped off the ship and made her way too the beach before he could ask her about it.

Luffy had wound his leg around a tree and was hanging upside down, speaking into an imagenary walkie-talkie. "This is Luffy! There's so much fun stuff to do here that I don't know what to do first! Over!"

Usopp was building a mound out of the cloud. "This is Usopp! How about we take a vacation here? Over!" He looked up hopefully ad Luffy hanging two meters above his head.

"Vacation huh? That sounds good! Rejected!"

"Rejected!? That means 'no'!" Usopp said.

Luffy didn't continue the argument as he had found a green fruit shaped like a cylinder-shaped melon about as large as his arms could reach around without stretching. "Weird looking fruit!" he sang. "Itsatakimasu!" Biting into it, blue lines appeared on his forehead. "What is this?" he exclaimed. "It's like a rock!!"

He spotted Usopp building his cloud mound thingy. "Oi, Usopp, want some fruit?" Without waiting for an answer, Luffy threw the fruit onto Usopp's head. "Here, catch!"

The fruit crashed into Usopp's head, pushing his face into this cloud mound. "That HURT, you jerk!" he yelled, clutching his head and shaking his fist. "You wait right there, you rubber monkey!"

Chopper landed on a heap of cloud and sighed. "Sky Island would be a good place to sleep…" he droned. He rolled off the heap and started rolling across the beach.

"Well this certainty is a strange looking flower," Sanji muttered, bending down to look at some purple flowers growing up out of the cloud. "The leaves are shaped like balloons. Will they pop like that octopus did?" he wondered. He plucked a few and breathed in their fragrance with a smile.

Nami stretched. "This feels great! The Marines couldn't follow us here!" she said. Chopper bumped against Nami's leg, spirals in his eyes. Hoshi poked him teasingly.

"Dizzy?" she asked kindly. Chopper moaned. Hoshi chuckled and patted the little reindeer on the head compassionately.

"Hey, Chopper, Hoshi, look over there," Nami said, pointing. It was a little cabana with three white chairs in it.

"Ah, Robin-chan!" Sanji sang, holding his flowers. He ran up to Robin and tucked one of the flowers into her hair. "A beautiful Sky Flower for you! And the other two…" he sang, looking around. He spotted Hoshi and Nami reclining in the cabana. "NAMI-SAN! HOSHI-CHAN! YOUR FLOWERS!" he called, doing his little noodle dance across the beach. Robin watched him go, bemused.

Hoshi leaned back into the chair, closing her eyes, a blissful expression on her face. "Ah, I've never felt anything this comfortable before," she sighed.

Nami bounced a heel against the chair. "So I guess these people do have ways to make stuff out of clouds."

Sanji came in and placed flowers on Nami's and Hoshi's heads, going the regular nine yards about his undying love and passion…

"But it's not the same as those fluffy clouds," Chopper pointed out. "This stuff's cushiony."

Hoshi cracked open one eye to see Zoro coming up the beach. "How do you get wet in a sea of clouds?" he grumbled. He spotted a fluffy, furry thing and grabbed it. "Ah, perfect." He grabbed it and started wiping off his ankles with it.

What he didn't expect was for the fluffy thing to squeal in protest. He picked it up… and realized it wasn't just a fluffy thing, it was a white fox. He made a surprised face and dropped it. "Sorry!" he apologized. He kneeled down and looked at it as it sniffed him curiously. "What are you?" he asked it. "Some sort of fox?"

Hoshi's laughter met his ears, and he looked up. He reddened a little.

Suddenly, harp music floated up the beach. Everyone looked up, and even Luffy stopped trying to bite into the fruit to see where the sound was coming from.

"Oi. Someone's here," Zoro said. Hoshi was immediately up. Zoro placed a hand on his Maitou, squinting at the figure standing on top of a mound of clouds that rose above the beach.

"That guerilla again?" Usopp asked, hiding in a bush.

"Blow the whistle!" Chopper panicked. "The Knight of the Sky! Have him come save us!"

"No, wait…" Everyone looked at Sanji. "That's not the guerilla…"

The figure came more sharply into view. It was a girl dressed in a pink shift, a white belt encircling her hips, and playing a large harp. Two wings, similar to the ones that Amazon had, were also on her back. Blonde hair was braided into two braids on either side of her head, and two antennae, the same color as her hair and also similar to the ones Amazon had, were perched on her head. She stopped playing and peered at them through dark green eyes with a small smile. "Heso."

Usopp looked confused. "Did she just say… heso?"

(Translation note: "heso" and "heso" are homonyms in Japanese. One is a greeting (as used here), and the other means bellybutton. They are not the same words.)

"Yup," Nami nodded, looking equally confused.

"What does 'heso' mean?" asked Chopper.

"Heso's just a bellybutton," Zoro answered, not taking his eyes off the girl, suspicious.

Hoshi growled a little, untrusting. Her skin creased between her eyebrows, and her eyes had turned to ice. She said nothing.

The girl cocked her head a little. "Suu, come." The little white fox responded, walking up to the strange girl. She started walking closer to the group. "Are you all from the Blue Sea?" she asked.

"Yeah, we came down from there," Luffy answered. "Do you live here?"

"Yes, I do," the girl responded with a polite smile. The fox leaped up into her arms. "Welcome to Skypia's Angel Beach." Spotting the fruit that Luffy had tucked under his arm, she smiled. "Would you like to drink that?"

"'Drink'?" Robin asked.

The girl took the fruit into her arms. "The top of a conasshu is as hard as steel. You can't bite through it," she explained. Taking out a small penknife, she turned the fruit over and cut a little circle in the center. She put a straw into it, and gave it back to Luffy. "Here you go!"

The fox made a satisfied noise and curled at the girl's feet. Luffy took a sip and his eyes bugged out. "IT'S DELICIOUS!" he exclaimed.

Usopp looked excited. "It's that good!? Give me some too! I want some!"

"Me too!" Chopper chimed in, reaching for the fruit.

The girl picked up the fox and stroked it on the head. "I am Conis. This is Suu, a Cloudfox. Pleased to meet all of you!" she smiled. "Should you need anything, please let me be of service."

"Yes, about that…" Sanji started, looking very serious. "The look in your eyes has pierced my heart with the arrow of lo- owwww!" he yelled, as Nami pinched his ear and pulled him to the ground.

He still had a heart in his eye. "Nami-san's so cute when she's annoyed…"

Zoro sweatdropped. "Oi…"

Hoshi refused to take her eyes off Conis.

"There's a lot we'd like to ask you!" Nami said cheerfully. "This place is just full of mysteries for us!"

"Of course!" Conis smiled. "Please ask me anything!" She felt the intenseness of Hoshi's gaze, glanced in her direction, and shivered a little. Those eyes were so cold…

While Nami barraged the poor girl with a million questions, Hoshi had relaxed a little. The girl seemed harmless enough, like the perfect resort host. She didn't seem like she was much of a fighter, her build seemed rather frail. A rather timid personality also seemed to be making itself known. It was enough for Hoshi not to be standing in a defensive stance anymore, but she wasn't relaxed enough to make friendly conversation.

Still, there was something about the girl she just couldn't like. The phoenix, who had proved to be an exceptionally good judge of people in the past, agreed.

**Who is Conis? Is she friend or foe? If you've watched the Skypia arc already, you already know, but bear with me here! I hope you enjoyed this chapter! If you did, then review!**


	5. Dials

**Author's Note: Thanks for the reviews! I really appreciate it! I've decided the pairing!!!! It's going to be….**

…

…

…

**I'M NOT TELLING!! MWAHAHAHA!!! (But seriously, I think I've dropped enough hints to choke a hippo)**

**This chapter is more an informational chapter than anything, nothing too much happens. Stuff's actually going to happen in the next chapter, so bear with me here!**

**Disclaimer: Don't own One Piece**

Chapter Five: Dials

"Oi, there's someone out there," Zoro said, looking out over the ocean.

Everyone saw a strange man riding out over the waves in a strange boat. It looked sort of like a wave rider. "Ah, my father," Conis said happily.

"Heso, Conis-san!" her father called.

"Heso Father!"

"Um… what are they talking about?" Luffy asked, blue lines over his eyes. (If you don't get the joke, see the translation note in the last chapter.)

"What is that?" Nami asked. "That thing he's riding?"

"You mean the Waver?" Conis asked.

"That thing's pretty cool!" Luffy yelled.

"A Waver…" Nami murmured.

"Ah, yes, I'm sorry! I'll be stopping now!" Conis' father called. Dressed in a tan robe, he wore two black gloves, a large woven basket on his back, and a pair of strange goggles on his forehead. His hair was rather strange. It clumped at the top of his long face like a bush (with the antennae that seemed to be a natural part of hair for these people), and another bush covering his mouth. The only way you could tell he was talking was from the up and down movements it made. The strange, small wings were on his back also. His eyes were the ones that always looked like they were closed, and he also had the strange wings on his back.

He didn't slow down as he neared the beach… rather he ran over the beach and crashed into a tree. Everyone stared in stunned silence.

Conis' father picked himself up rather shakily. "I-is everyone alright?"

"WHAT ABOUT **YOU**?!" Zoro and Usopp yelled at the same time.

Hoshi just remained stonily silent. She couldn't trust these people yet.

"Hey, Luffy, didn't you guys bring up something like that from the ocean floor?" Nami asked.

Luffy was still drinking out of his fruit thingy. "Yep," he said between sips.

"That's what Norland wrote about in his diary… a ship that sails without wind!" Nami realized aloud.

"Are these your friends, Conis-san?" Conis' father asked.

"Yes!" Conis said with a genuine smile. Hoshi looked at her suspiciously. "We just met! They came all the way up from the Blue Sea!"

"I see," Conis' father said with a smile… or what seemed to be one. It was hard to tell past that beard. "That must have been a very difficult journey. This is the White-White Sea. I'm sorry."

"Oh, no, it's cool," Usopp said, waving his hands from side to side.

"I haven't introduced myself yet, have I? My name is Pagaya. I'm sorry."

"Ah, no, it's fine," Usopp said, becoming more flustered at all the 'I'm sorry's.

"Father," Conis asked. "Did you catch any fish?"

Pagaya smiled. "Yes, a good catch," he said, indicating the large woven basket he carried. "Would you all like to stop by my house? I could treat you all to a little happiness of the sky!"

"Can we?! We'll go, we'll go!" Luffy shouted happily. Hoshi still felt uneasy, but she felt herself relaxing. These people were no real threat.

"Sky Island cuisine, huh? Will you let me help you prepare it?" Sanji asked, dusting off his hands.

Nami was checking the Waver. "Can I ask you something, Pagaya-san?"

"Of course! You may ask me anything, I'm sorry."

"This… doesn't have a sail to catch the wind, and you weren't rowing it. How does it move?"

"Oh, so you all don't know about Dials?" Conis asked.

"Dials?" Luffy asked. "What are those?"

A few seconds later, there was an explosion on the shore as the Waver took off. Luffy was attempting to ride it… with catastrophic results. He was gassing it without realizing what he was doing.

"AHH!! WHY IS IT SHAKING SO MUCH!? IT WON'T STOP!!" he yelled. As a reflex, he pressed the gas pedal all the way to the floor… the wrong thing to do. The Waver put on a burst of speed and flew into the air. Luffy flew in a screaming arc and landed in the sea.

Conis and Pagaya were looking horrified. "I hope he's not hurt!" Conis breathed.

"What a tragedy!!" Pagaya exclaimed. "I'm sorry for letting a beginner handle the Waver!!"

Hoshi still hadn't said one word since the arrival of the two Sky Island inhabitents, but she ventured out of the cabana and stood between Zoro and Sanji. "Say…" she said. "What happens to people with Devil's fruit abilities in this sea? This ocean's different, right?"

Chopper was shocked, and was running around the beach in terror.

"Oh right," Zoro said, thinking it over. "Maybe he can handle it."

Luffy sank into the cloud. "S-SABE BEEE!! (save me!!)"

Chopper screamed.

"He sank," Hoshi pointed out.

"No good, eh?" Zoro sighed.

"Guess not," Sanji muttered.

Chopper was freaking out. "OH NO!!!" he yelled, jumping into the ocean to save Luffy.

A couple minutes later, Sanji and Zoro dragged a drowning Luffy back to shore. Usopp dragged a drowning Chopper to shore, and Hoshi had swum out and brought in the Waver.

"Hey now! He was about to fall through the bottom of the cloud!" Sanji chided.

"It's your fault for standing around blabbering so long!" Zoro grumbled.

As the two started bickering, again, Usopp was reviving Chopper. "Geez, why'd you jump in too?" he asked the little reindeer, annoyed.

"Sky Island scary… Sky Island scary…" Chopper trembled.

"I'm sorry! This would not have happened if I did not lend him my Waver!" Pagaya apologized. "The body of the Waver is very light. Even a small wave can move the rudder, and unless you know the sea very well, you will not be able to ride it! I'm sorry!"

Conis explained to a wide-eyed Chopper. "I myself only recently became skilled enough to use it."

"It's that hard?!" Chopper exclaimed.

"Yes, it is, I'm sorry. With practice, it may take about seven years," Pagaya confirmed.

"Holy crap!" Chopper said, his eyes popping out.

Hoshi sweatdropped. "Um… then what's Nami doing?" Everyone looked.

"Come to think of it, where'd she go?" Zoro asked, looking around.

Nami was out on the sea with the Waver, having the time of her life. "This is the greatest!!" she whooped.

Usopp and Luffy's jaws fell to the beach. Sanji had a heart in his eye. "NAMI-SAN!" he called. "YOU'RE WONDERFUL!!"

"Oh my! This is quite extraordinary!" Pagaya exclaimed.

Luffy's eyes bugged out. "How can she ride that thing?!"

"This thing really does take a lot of control and delicate observation!" Nami called. "It'd be impossible for someone like you, Luffy!"

Luffy got blue lines on his head, then he yelled. "OI! WE'RE GOING TO THE OSSAN'S HOUSE!! GET OFF THAT THING RIGHT NOW, YOU DORK!!"

Sanji kicked Luffy in the head. "Don't talk to Nami-san like that!"

"YOU DORK!!" Luffy raged.

"You guys go ahead!" Nami laughed. She was having too much fun to get mad at Luffy. "Is it alright if I borrow it for a bit longer, Oji-san?" she asked Pagaya.

"Of course! Take care!"

"Riding on the sea like this without having to calculate for the wind… it's like a dream!" Nami said happily. "I wonder if I can use this on the regular ocean?"

Hoshi shielded her eyes. "Whoa! The happy glow! It's blinding!"

"YOU DORK!" Luffy yelled. Sanji stuffed Luffy's face into the cloud beach.

"Oi, Pagaya-san, what's this up here?" Usopp called. He had started climbing the staircase and was pointing to a place on the left. "It looks like a construction site!"

Pagaya explained as everyone started to climb the stairs. "Yes, this is a cloud cutting site. This is where clouds are cut and prepared for manufacturing."

Luffy and Usopp and Chopper weren't listening… they were dancing and bouncing up the cloud on the side rather than using the specially cut stairs.

"Can you really cut clouds?" Sanji asked disbelievingly.

"You came here up the Milky Road, yes?" Pagaya asked.

"That roller-coaster road?" Luffy asked. "Yup, we came up that one."

"It was manufactured using Island Cloud cut from here. There are two major types of clouds here. The one you used to sail here is Sea Cloud, and the fluffy cloud that we can walk on is Island Cloud."

"Well no matter how you look at it, it isn't normal," Zoro grumbled.

"Yes. The solidification nucleus which produces each cloud is different. On the Blue Sea, there is something called Kairouseki, correct?" Pagaya asked.

"Kairouseki? That has something to do with this?" Robin asked, looking up.

"Yes. It is found in Pyrobloin, a sulfur protein particle transported into the sky by volcanoes. When it reacts with water vapor, the differences in density determine whether Sea Cloud or Island Cloud will be formed."

A blue aura hung over Luffy and Usopp's heads.

"Oh sure, that!" Luffy said, laughing uneasily and waving a hand.

"Yes, yes, yes, I know all about them," Usopp said. "I used to play with sulfur protein particles when I was a kid-"

"Liar," Hoshi snapped. "You can't do that with sulfur protein particles."

"Well anyway, the kinds of cloud you find here are Sea Cloud, Island Cloud, and ones artificially manufactured from Island Cloud," Pagaya explained. They reached the top of the staircase. "Here we are. The view of the ocean from here is really quite fantastic, I'm sorry."

"Oho! I can see Nami on the Waver!" Usopp said, squinting at the little black dot on the ocean. He glanced at Luffy, who was staring at the dot. "Oi, what's wrong?"

"That Nami… How's it so easy for her?!" he grumbled. He cupped his hands around his mouth. "SINK!!!"

"Jerk!" Sanji kicked him and dragged him up the remainder of the stairs.

They entered Pagaya's house, which was virtually right next to the staircase. "Hey ossan!" Sanji asked, looking around. "Where's your kitchen?"

Pagaya smiled… or moved his mouth under his beard into what Hoshi thought might be a smile. "It's right this way." He led Sanji into the kitchen, a sliding door to the left. They had entered into a cozy sitting room, with delicate pink walls and three couches surrounding a square table. There was even a small balcony that looked over the ocean.

Hoshi was crouching and looking at a strange object on the table. Besides the teacups, there was a strange blue shell. It was built in layers, and had holes about the size of a coin all over it. She could see quite clearly by now that Pagaya and Conis meant them no harm, enough for her to relax. Her nerves were still humming a little, and the phoenix was shifting about uneasily.

She was about to inquire on the object when a loud yell emitted from the kitchen.

"Is something wrong?" Pagaya exclaimed.

Hoshi heard Sanji cough a couple times. "N-no, I'd just never seen this sauce before, so I tried a little of it. Man, it really has a strong flavor, this sky-colored sauce. My tongue's gone numb!"

There was an uneasy silence, then Pagaya said, "It's gone bad. I'm sorry."

"THEN DON'T LEAVE IT LYING AROUND!!" Sanji yelled. There was a sound of smashing glass. "I ate a whole spoonful of the stuff!!"

"I'm sorry! Are you cut!?"

"NO!"

Hoshi chuckled. "Sounds like he's having fun!" she noted, glancing at the kitchen door. She got up off her kneeling position next to the table and flopped on the cloud couch next to Zoro.

Usopp put on a self-important smile. "He's simply overjoyed at seeing the rare sky cuisine…" he sighed.

Robin looked at Conis. "I know we just got here, but could you tell us more about those Dials you mentioned before?"

"Of course!" Conis answered. "Let's see… How should I explain?" She walked over to a side table behind the couch Chopper was sitting on.

"Ahh… what a nice, cushiony chair…" the little reindeer sighed.

Conis picked up a grey, spiraling shell and gave it to Luffy. "What, you have shells here?" he asked.

"Yes, please try saying something into it," Conis smiled.

"Yosh!" Luffy brought the shell close to his mouth. "USOPP'S A DORK!!" he yelled into it.

Usopp fell down behind Luffy. "Why, why, why, why did you say that?" he moaned.

"Now try pressing the apex of the shell," Conis instructed.

Luffy looked at the shell in his hand, confused. "What's an apex?"

"The top of the shell," Usopp said, sweatdropping. He pressed it.

"_USOPP'S A DORK_!!" the shell said.

Luffy and Usopp started freaking out. "AH!! THE SHELL'S MAKING FUN OF USOPP!!" Luffy yelled.

"AND IN YOUR VOICE!" Usopp shouted.

"Hey, that's really something," Hoshi admired. Conis glanced at Hoshi and smiled. Hoshi gave the blonde a small smile and a slight nod.

"It recorded the sound," Zoro said, an eyebrow raised.

"The seashell is a Dial?" Robin inquired.

Conis smiled. "Yes. This is a Tone Dial. It is able to record and replay sound. It is one of the shells of the White-White Sea.

"But this sea doesn't have a bottom," Zoro pointed out. "Where do the shellfish live?"

"They live on reefs in the shallows," Conis explained. "The reefs move with the island."

"But I don't see how that could move the Waver," Hoshi said. Conis walked over to the side table and picked up another shell. This one was more flat and purple. "Yes, this is the propulsion Dial for the Waver. This one isn't very large, but the concept is the same as the Tone Dial." Conis pressed the apex of the shell and aimed it at a wind-chime. A gentle wind blew out of it, making the wind-chime ring. "This one is a Breath Dial," she explained.

Luffy held his hand out. "I want to see!" he said, stars in his eyes.

As Luffy played with the Breath Dial, Conis explained, "The Breath Dial sucks in wind and releases it freely. The capacity of the Dial determines the strength of the wind that blows out of it. By putting these on the aft of ships, it can move light ships or large ones. And that is the Waver."

"I see, so it keeps blowing air to keep the ship moving," Usopp clarified. Conis nodded.

"That Waver's neat!" Luffy exclaimed.

"There are actually many other types of Wavers… skate types and board types," Conis continued.

"So that's how that guerilla was skating on top of the clouds," Hoshi murmured. Zoro glanced at Hoshi.

"I want to ride!" Luffy said, hoisting himself up on the banister with his arms and clapping the soles of his sandals together. "Nami's so lucky! We even have one too!"

Conis looked at Usopp. "You all have a Waver?"

Usopp cringed apologetically. "Sort of by accident. We picked up a really old beat-up one. But after 200 years, it probably won't move."

Luffy made a face.

"Well, that isn't necessarily the case," Conis said. "Dials are made from the remains of shellfish. As long as the shell isn't broken, there's no reason why it shouldn't be perfectly functional."

Luffy whooped and started dancing around. "Hear that Usopp!? We've got a Waver!!"

"But you still can't ride it though," Hoshi pointed out.

Luffy hung his head. "I can wish," he grumbled.

Hoshi laughed. Robin pointed to the shell on the table that Hoshi had been looking at earlier. "Is this another type of Dial?"

"Yes," Conis smiled. "That is a Lamp Dial." She pressed the apex of the shell, and it started glowing. Chopper's eyes were bugging out of his head.

"There is one that stores fire, the Flame Dial, and one that stores smells and aromas, the Flavor Dial," Conis said. "There are so many different kinds of Dials."

Chopper was moved. "That's so cool! That's so cool!"

"So I'm guessing that these Dials are an integral factor of Skypia's culture," Robin smiled.

"Correct!"

Hoshi glanced at Zoro and sweatdropped. "Idiot, don't go to sleep while other people are talking," she told him, hitting him with each word.

**Okay, this chapter's getting long, so I'll stop here. Hope you all enjoyed and will review!**


	6. Where's Nami?

**Author's Note: Okay, I felt bad about posting a rather boring chapter, so I decided to upload this one really quick. Hope you like! If you like it, review!**

**Disclaimer: 'reads off a notecard' I don't own One Piece**

Chapter Six: Where's Nami?

"Alright you all, it's ready!" Sanji called. Two seconds later, a delicious-smelling array of food had been set on the coffe table, complete with a wine bottle and champagne glasses. "Full-Course Sky Island Special Catch with Fruit is now served!" the cook announced proudly.

"Look's great!" Chopper exclaimed.

"Itsatakimasu!" Luffy sang, grabbing half the lobster and biting into it.

The rest of the crew took a little of everything (like regular human beings) and started to eat.

"Delicious!" Usopp said with obvious delight.

"I've never tasted anything like this before!" Hoshi beamed. "What about you Zoro?"

The swordsman didn't answer, but the fact that he was already reaching for a second helping answered her question. She grinned at him.

"This is a superb presentation of the shrimp," Robin commented.

Sanji walked out onto the balcony and lit a cigarette. "Oi… where'd Nami-san go?" he asked.

"She's there in the sea," Luffy said, not looking up.

"Yeah, we just saw her," Hoshi added.

"No, she's not. I don't see her," Sanji said, scanning the ocean.

Usopp looked up and grinned. "You know Nami, she probably just went out exploring. She can handle herself."

Conis looked worried. "Father… will she be alright?"

"Yes, Conis-san, I also feel a bit unsettled," Pagaya said. Hoshi glanced towards the two of them through slightly narrowed eyes as she chewed her food.

"Why?" Luffy asked through a mouthful of food. "Why would she not be alright?"

Conis was silent for a minute before answering. "Here on Skypia… there is a place you must never ever set foot upon, no matter what the circumstances," she said hesitantly. "That place is adjacent to this island, and could easily be reached with the Waver.

"'Must never set foot upon?'" Luffy asked. "What does that mean?"

"Exactly what it says, idiot," Usopp chided.

"It's sacred ground," Conis murmured. She looked very uncomfortable, her hands balled on her knees and she was sweating a little.

Pagaya had put down his plate. "We call that place the Land Where God Resides, Upper Yard."

"GOD lives there?!" Luffy exclaimed, actually putting down unfinished food and standing up. "In the place you must never, ever set foot!?"

"God lives on Sky Island?" Chopper asked, wondering.

Hoshi looked skeptical, but Conis nodded. "Yes. Because Skypia is God's land, ruled by the almighty God, Enel."

Robin blinked.

Hoshi growled a little. Enel… that name just irked her for some reason.

"God Enel knows everything that goes on in this world," Conis continued.

"Everything?!" Chopper exclaimed.

Conis nodded. "He watches over us, always. He knows everything we do."

There was a silence, then it was broken by Hoshi's laughter. She laughed and laughed in front of everyone's stunned faces.

Pagaya stood. "Please! This is not a laughing matter, I'm sorry!" he said firmly.

Hoshi got herself under control and wiped a tear from her eye. "I'm sorry," she apologized. "I'm not laughing at your religion… I'm just thinking what a headache any sort of sane person would get from knowing everything that went on in this world." She chuckled softly. Pagaya and Conis continued to look horrified, though Usopp and Zoro got the joke, and they chuckled a bit.

"Hmph, 'God', right?" Zoro asked no one in particular. He took a gulp of the sky-colored wine.

"Zoro… you don't believe in God?" Chopper asked.

"Don't know… I don't frankly care whether God exists or not," Zoro said nonchalantly, making eye contact with the little reindeer. He took another gulp of wine. "Well, it's not like I have anything against anyone who wants to believe."

"So this God who lives on Upper Yard, have you ever seen him Conis-chan?" Sanji asked.

Conis jumped at the question, and waved her hands in front of her. "No! I've never seen him! We are forbidden to set foot on Upper Yard."

Luffy had stars sparkling in front of his face. "A place we must never, ever set foot, right?" he asked with a big grin.

Usopp grabbed the cuff of Luffy's shirt and started shaking the rubberman. "Oi Luffy! What the hell are you think about right now?! Listen to what she's saying! 'Must never set foot on' means we **ABSOLUTELY** must not go there! LUFFY! Are you listening to me!?"

Luffy continued to smile dreamily. "Is that right? A place we must never, ever set foot, huh?"

Zoro groaned and put his face into his hands. "Here we go again," he told his palms. Hoshi laughed and patted his back sympathetically. Robin chuckled and took a delicate sip of champagne.

"Even if we DO go there, God's nice right? He'll forgive us if we do!" Luffy said, nonchalantly chomping on a bun.

"Even so… breaking a law that God has created is sacrilege," Conis exclaimed.

"Is that so?" Luffy sang, stuffing the rest of the lobster into his mouth.

Everyone except Conis and Pagaya sweatdropped. "He definitely wants to go there," Hoshi muttered, voicing everyone's thoughts.

"Does he even know what 'sacrilege' means?" Zoro muttered.

"So what are the consequences for entering this forbidden Upper Yard?" Robin asked.

Conis hesitated. "W-well… it is said that you will not return alive from there."

Hoshi froze, and her fist clenched her fork. "N-not return alive?"

Sanji's cigarette fell out of his mouth. Pagaya turned his gaze on Sanji and Hoshi. "You're worried about Nami-san, aren't you? It will be best if she doesn't get too close to Upper Yard."

Sanji immediately ran to the balcony and bellowed, "NAMI-SAN!! WHERE'D YOU GO? DON'T MOVE A MUSCLE, WE'RE COMING TO GET YOU!!!"

Hoshi put down her metal fork and plate onto the coffee table and stood up. The fork was dented. Conis noticed this, and shuddered a little. The fork had been perfectly straight before.

Luffy was happy. "Yosh, let's go there then! We'll go find Nami on the place we must never, ever set foot upon!"

Usopp grabbed Luffy and started shaking him. "Is Nami really part of your plan?" he demanded. "You just want to enter that forbidden place, don't you? Don't you!?" Dropping Luffy, he turned to look at Hoshi. "Hoshi, couldn't you go and find Nami?" he asked.

Hoshi just gave the long nosed sharpshooter a cold look. Usopp melted under the gaze. "Okay, okay, I get it," he mumbled.

Sanji was already at the door. "Oi, guys, let's go."

Luffy was stuffing his face with the last of the food. "Wait a sec, got to eat this first."

"What if something happens to Nami-san while you're worrying about that?! Forget the food! We'll be back soon anyways!"

"Hang on a sec! This food is way too good to pass up like that!!"

Sanji growled. "Conis-chan! We could be here all day waiting for him! Can you tell us how to get to Upper Yard?"

Conis was even more unsettled. She clenched her fists in her lap as Hoshi watched through narrowed eyes. Conis said, "Incurring the wrath of God is a… terrible thing."

Chopper swallowed. "God Enel sounds really scary…"

It took the crew a while to get Luffy away from the food. He just kept stretching and grabbing the table to get some more food. Eventually though, everyone, including Conis, was on board Merry.

"YOSH! LET'S GO! TO THE PLACE WE MUST NEVER EVER SET FOOT!!" Luffy yelled, punching the air with both fists as he sat on his special seat.

Pagaya tested the wind from the beach. "I'm sorry! There's a headwind right now! With this wind, it would take a considerable amount of time to reach Upper Yard!" he called to everyone on deck. This was met by outcries of dismay.

"It wouldn't take as long if your ship was one powered by Dial energy," Pagaya cut through.

"Just how long would 'considerable' be?" Sanji asked.

Pagaya looked at his sandals. "I don't know… unless the wind changes…"

"Is that so? 'Considerable' huh?" Usopp nonchalantly replied, casually leaning on the banister. "Nami would certainly be in peril without the great Usopp-sama to protect her-"

"Couldn't you make the wind blow the way we want it to?" Luffy asked Hoshi.

Hoshi shrugged. "I could… if I wanted to get a life-threatening fever for the next three days. The amount of energy I would need to move that much air would come close to killing me."

"Ossan, isn't there any other faster way?" Luffy called. "If we don't hurry up, Nami might get back!!"

Everyone sweatdropped. "Oi…"

"We finally found a dangerous place to go!" Luffy retorted. "Like hell I'm going to wait for the wind to change!" He jumped into the belly of the ship and started rampaging around a bit.

"Luffy, you'd better not be damaging Merry!" Usopp shouted into the hold.

"Don't worry, I'm not," Luffy said, coming up with a bunch of wood on his head.

Hoshi blinked. "Oi, Luffy! Don't tell me that's-"

"Yup! It's the old beat-up Waver we found!" Luffy threw it into the ocean and hopped on. It didn't move an inch, but it did flip over due to the considerable amount of damage it had suffered.

"That idiot," Usopp muttered.

"S-SABE BEE!!" Luffy gargled.

Chopper's eyes were wide. "He's… sinking again. What do we do?"

"Leave him," Usopp, Sanji, Zoro, and Hoshi all automatically replied.

In the end, they ended up saving Luffy anyways. He was all bloated from the water he had taken in. Hoshi helped Zoro squish all the water out of Luffy by stomping on Luffy's belly. She had a grin on her face. "This guy's a complete nut!" she laughed.

Zoro grimaced. "If he's such a nut, why do we bother to save him every time?"

Pagaya inspected the Waver, talking with Usopp. Hoshi didn't pay much attention until Usopp yelled, "You can fix it?!"

Luffy miraculously recovered, spraying Zoro and Hoshi with a blast of water from his mouth. "You can fix it Ossan?!" he asked, looking excited.

Unfortunatly, he didn't hear the answer due to his first mate and his musician punching him into the sand and standing on his head. "YOU ARE SUCH AN IDIOT!!" they roared at him.

"Well, I'm a Dial ship engineer, so there's no reason why I shouldn't," Pagaya smiled.

"Hurrah! I'm counting on you Ossan!" Luffy said, punching both fists into the air. He and Usopp started square dancing. "He's going to fix the Wa-ver, he's going to fix the Wa-ver…"

Hoshi suddenly shivered as a cold wave bolted down her spine. She looked over the ocean's surface with narrowed eyes. A wave of enormous power had been unleashed somewhere close by just now…

"You alright?" Zoro asked, noticing this change in behavior.

Hoshi didn't hear him. What the hell… was that just now? she wondered. The phoenix hit a high pitched tremolo, making her mind throb. She winced.

"Oi, Hoshi, you alright?" Zoro asked, a little more loudly. Hoshi blinked and looked at him with a shaky smile.

"I'm fine," was her answer. Zoro looked at her through narrowed eyes. She was sweating a little, and she was really tense. Something was definitely wrong.

Everyone busied themselves doing random things while they waited for Pagaya. Chopper made a replica of himself with the island cloud. "Hey, Usopp, how's this?" he asked. It was a cute effort, but it looked more like a blob with hoof-shaped eyes, wearing a cylinder more than anything.

Usopp had a characteristically smug look on his face. "I'm done with mine too!" he said, gallantly showing off his piece. He had molded himself, with a crown and cape, laughing courageously, and the rest of the crew behind him looking up at him in awe. "Mine's the spitting image!!"

"AMAZING!!" Chopper yelled, stars in his eyes.

Sanji's eyebrow twitched. "The spitting image of WHAT exactly?" he asked in a dangerously polite voice.

"The crew!" Usopp announced proudly.

Sanji snapped. He kicked Usopp in the head, then set about stomping on all the statues. "IT'S NOT THE SPITTING IMAGE OF ANYTHING, YOU STUPID NAGAHANA!!"

A dagger sliced off the cloud-Usopp's head, coming dangerously close to Sanji's nose before disappearing. Hoshi glanced at Usopp's crestfallen face before facing the sea again. Zoro turned his head away to hide his suppressed laughter.

"Hoshi! Sanji!! What the hell are you doing?! It took me forever to get the face right!" Usopp moaned.

"Who, me?" Hoshi asked innocently, smiling sweetly.

"Who else has weapons that'll disappear into thin air?" Usopp demanded.

Hoshi made a scary face, still smiling, but shadows as if she was holding a light under her chin. "WHO, I wonder," she intoned.

Usopp went stiff, then started crying. "S-s-scary…"

Hoshi and Zoro started cracking up at the sight of his face.

"Usopp… your face…!" Hoshi gasped between bouts of laughter.

Zoro just laughed until tears formed at the corners of his eyes.

"IT'S NOT FUNNY!" Usopp roared.

Hoshi and Zoro stopped laughing for one second. They looked at Usopp, then they looked at each other and began right back where they started.

Robin chuckled, watching this scene.

"Why me?" Usopp moaned.

Hoshi suddenly stopped laughing as the uniform click of boots met her ears. She whirled around to see strange men with purple shirts, blue pants patterned with clouds, and black boots coming down the stairs. They all were marching in uniform rows, and had white berets tilted over their left eyes. Something in their manner told Hoshi that there were some sort of military force, and she immediately stiffened. Her experiences with governments in the past had not been pleasant.

Everyone looked in the direction Hoshi was staring in. "Oi, who are those guys?" Luffy asked Conis and Pagaya. They didn't have time to answer as a voice boomed out over the beach. "SUSPICIOUS LOOKING SHIP! STOP RIGHT THERE!!"

Hoshi had blue lines over one eye. "What the hell… we weren't moving," she muttered. She started to subtly loosen her combat muscles, ready for action.

**Here we are, at the end of the chapter. TT I hope you enjoyed! If you liked it, please clicky the nice button!**


	7. The White Berets

**Author's Note: Okay, here's chapter eight! PLEASE REVIEW! I've decided I'm not going to ask for a specific number of reviews, but I'm not going to update until I have at least one anymore.**

**Disclaimer: Don't own One Piece**

Chapter Seven: The White Berets

The soldiers reached the bottom of the stairs, then got down and started crawling on their bellies towards the Going Merry.

"Um… what are they doing?" Usopp asked, his eyebrow twitching.

"Beats me," Hoshi said, standing up.

"Troops, halt!" the one wearing a jacket yelled. The troops all obediently stood up and saluted. "Heso!"

"Good afternoon," Pagaya said politely. "Heso."

Luffy was sweating. "What are the hell are you guys saying?!" (This is the third time this joke has appeared… I don't think I need to explain it anymore.)

Now Hoshi's eyebrow was twitching. Sticking their forefingers and pinky fingers out of their fist, they placed their fists behind their heads and clicked their heels together. It was the strangest salute that she'd ever seen.

"You are the seven illegal entrants from the Blue Sea, am I correct?" barked the guy who seemed to be in charge. Without giving the stunned crew a chance to answer, he shouted, "WE ARE HERE TO BESTOW HEAVEN'S JUDGEMENT ON YOU!"

"What, you want to fight?" Hoshi asked. If you didn't know what she was saying, she could have been asking the time of day. She glared at the head honcho and narrowed her eyes. "Bring it on," she dared.

"It's no use denying it!" the commander barked, taking no notice of Hoshi. "The Heaven's Gate lookout, Amazon, has sent us these photos, taken with her Vision Dial." He held up seven pictures, showing the entire crew… except for Hoshi. He looked at her strangely. "Are you part of this crew? Your picture was not sent up with theirs."

Hoshi suddenly remembered that Amazon had thought there were only seven members to the crew. Her eyes were hidden under her hair for a minute as she considered how to answer. If she said she was a part of the crew, they would arrest her and probably put her into a lab once they found out what she was… If she said she wasn't a part of the crew, then she could escape the clutches of whatever government was here… The crew looked at her, wondering what she was going to do. They knew she hated governments of any kind with a passion.

"Oh dear, Amazon-san must have missed me," Hoshi said, smiling sweetly. "I am the eighth member of this crew," she said firmly, meeting the guy's eyes. The crew grinned as one.

"I see," the guy in charge said.

"No! This can't be right!" Pagaya exclaimed, sweating heavily. "There must be some mistake, Captain McKinley! They are not bad people!"

"What's he calling us illegal entrants for?" Sanji wondered aloud.

"Perhaps he's talking about the 1,000,000,000 Extol per person fee that we were supposed to pay," Robin commented. "We certainty didn't pay."

"B-but that old woman said we could pass without paying!" Usopp pointed out.

"She did!" Chopper said, raising his hand.

"It will do you no good," Captain McKinley said. "Just accept your guilt." Conis and Pagaya looked scared, but they placed themselves between the crew and the soldiers.

"However there is no need to worry," the captain said, a bit more kindly. "Illegal entry is a minor, Class-11 crime punishable by Heaven's Judgment. Once you have accepted your punishment, you will be returned to the status of peaceful tourists."

Hoshi almost burst out laughing, though a small snort got through. Luffy? A peaceful tourist?

Sanji rolled his eyes. "I'm still not happy about it, but what's this punishment?" he asked.

"It's just a simple matter," the captain assured them. "Pay ten times the original immigration fee. If you pay immediately, your crime will be written straight off. 10,000,000,000 Extols per person, so that is 70,00-, excuse me, 80,000,000,000 Extols for all eight of you."

Usopp's eyes were wide. "8-80,000,000,000?! J-just how much is an Extol in Beli?" he demanded.

"Beli, the currency of the Blue Sea, correct?" the captain asked. Everyone nodded. "One Beli is the equivalent of 10,000 Extols, I believe."

Usopp started counting on his fingers, lost track, and turned to Robin. "If that's the case, 80,000,000,000 Extols would be 8,000,00 Beli," she answered.

Sanji's cigarette fell out his mouth for the second time that day. "That's still too much! I could buy tons of rice with that!" he exclaimed, stress marks appearing on his head. "Why do we have to pay such a ridiculous amount after risking our lives to get up here?! It's unacceptable!!"

"What are you saying?" McKinley asked. "You should have just paid the original 800,000 Beli immigration fee at the gate."

"That's still too expensive!" the blonde cook roared.

A menancing aura suddenly started to rise off the assembled soldiers. "Be warned," McKinley intoned. "We, the White Berets, act under the direct orders of the Priests of Upper Yard. Refusal will increase the severity of your punishment."

"Ah, forget it, leave them be," Hoshi said happily. The crew turned their backs on the White Berets, ignoring the intent to kill steadily brewing behind them.

"At any rate, I'm worried something will happen to Nami-san if we don't find her soon. She could be crying her beautiful eyes out somewhere this very moment, waiting for us to come rescue her!" Sanji said, worried.

"Yeah, let's get going! Since the wind's changed, let's go adventure- I mean, search for Nami!" Luffy said, stars in his eyes.

"You're not thinking about her!" the whole crew yelled at him.

"And at any rate, the wind hasn't changed yet," Hoshi grumbled.

Usopp grabbed the cuff of Luffy's shirt and was about to yell at him when he realized that wasn't the best thing. He let go of Luffy's shirt and tried to act casual. "Well, Nami said she was just going out on a little walk, wasn't she? If we leave now, we'll miss her!"

Luffy seemed to be buying it by the look of his downcast face when Chopper piped up, "She's been gone to long to have been on just a walk!"

Usopp twitched and slapped his hand on Chopper's mouth. "Don't you get it?" he hissed. "Luffy's using Nami as an excuse to go to that place we're not allowed to go! Listen up!" he said now, addressing the rest of the crew. "We shouldn't get into any more trouble then we're already in, and just wait until Nami comes back, okay? This is _Nami_ we're talking about here! I'm sure she'll have 8,000,000 just lying around somewhere that she can lend us!"

"And charge us an incredibly ridiculous interest rate," Zoro growled.

"What were you discussing just now?" McKinley cut in, annoyed. "That reminds me… If illegal entrants cannot pay the toll, they will be treated as escaped criminals."

"W-w-wait! Hang on a sec!" Usopp called desperately, waving his hands in the air. "Our treasurer should be back soon! Then we can pay you the full amount! I assure you, you will find us quite reasonable people! Just take it easy and wait!"

McKinley's mouth twisted.

Usopp pulled Luffy to one side and started whispering about staying out of trouble. "Well then everyone!" Usopp said, taking 'charge'. "You are dismissed for the time being!"

The crew dispersed to wait for Nami. Hoshi felt edgy and restless. She poked Zoro standing next to her. "Neh, you want to spar? Hand to hand, I mean," she said, glancing at the White Berets. "They probably won't like it if we took out our swords."

Zoro grinned. "Sure."

A couple of stretching exercises later, the White Berets found themselves watching a spectacular show of combat skills, though McKinley was distracted by the broken Waver. He started speaking firmly to Luffy and Pagaya about it. Zoro and Hoshi paid no attention, locked in combat, until suddenly Luffy shouted, "Shut up already! Before I kick your ass!"

Usopp heard, and dragged Luffy away, leaving behind a relieved Pagaya and a furious White Beret captain.

Hoshi and Zoro watched this episode without much interest, and resumed sparring almost immediately.

A couple of the White Berets started to whisper among themselves. "These Blue Sea Dwellers are pretty good," one of them admitted grudgingly. That could have quite possibly been the understatement of the year, and his companions knew it.

They elbowed him. "Shut up!" they hissed. "We're supposed to be on duty!"

Usopp had shoved a fishing rod into Luffy's hands, and they were both waiting for a bite. Hoshi and Zoro paid no attention until a HUGE yellow fish with teeth flew out of the water. It was about as big as a house.

Suddenly, the line broke, and the fish flew, roaring, towards Conis with a feral snarl, jagged teeth showing. The blonde girl screamed.

A whip cracked, and suddenly the fish was crashing headfirst into the beach where Conis had been a second before. It cried, a bump appearing on its nose. Conis shakily looked up at her rescuer as the grey whip around her waist disappeared into the air. "T-thank you Hoshi-san."

Hoshi smiled a little. She didn't quite trust Conis yet… but it had seemed wrong to just let the girl die like that. "Injured?" she asked.

Conis shook her head, then took the offered hand and Hoshi hoisted the girl to her feet.

"Well, well," tutted the captain. "This Skyfish is a rare species. Its capture is prohibited. You have broken the protection law for this species! This is a Class-9 crime!"

"What the hell!" Chopper exclaimed. "We saved Conis, didn't we? We didn't even touch the fish!"

McKinley chuckled. Hoshi felt her hackles rising. Something wasn't right here…

"See? Look here! It's still alive!" Usopp said desperately. "If we release it, everything's good, right?"

"Looks tasty!!" Luffy yelled, drooling. He stretched his arms.

"WAIT! LUFFY! DON'T D-"

Luffy bit the fish's fin. Zoro sweatdropped. "Oi…"

"You cannot deny trying to eat it!" McKinley said triumphantly. "Tantamount to theft, this is a Class-8 crime!!"

Hoshi walked up to the fish and looked it in the eye. It started sweating as the ice in her eyes seemed to freeze its mind, even though its eye was about as big as her head. "I think," Hoshi said sweetly, "I think you are going to go back into the sea now, and not give us any more trouble. Am I right?"

The fish gulped, then flopped back into the sea.

Zoro grabbed the hilt of his Maitou. "Standing around here listening to this guy go on about all these bullshit crimes is pissing me off," he growled.

Hoshi pulled her whip from the air again. "Come to think of it, I'm not in such a good mood myself," she said casually, making eye contact with the captain. To his credit, McKinley didn't flinch but he couldn't stop a sweatbead from rolling down his cheek.

"OI! Cut it out you two!" Usopp cried. "Stop it right now!"

"Your behavior right now was quite threatening," McKinley said ominously. "Such behavior is commensurate to a Class-7 crime!"

"No, no, no! They were about to say 'cut it out or I'll laugh!' It was a joke, a joke, do you get it? A gag! Gag!" Usopp spluttered.

"Something's funny here!" Chopper said, pointing at the captain. "He's trying to make us guilty!"

Usopp choked. "Chopper! Don't say things that'll make it worse!"

"But we can't do anything without getting told it's a crime!"

Usopp got an idea. "'Can't do anything?' Ah, I've got it!" He formed five pillows out of the cloud. "If we can't do anything, let's just take a nap!" he said cheerfully. "Good night everyone!"

The guys were all sleeping and snoring in seconds. Hoshi held her pillow, confused, her eyebrow twitching. She sighed and sat down cross-legged after a few seconds. Placing her pillow on her lap, she put her head on her fists and watched the guys sleep. There was no way she would be able to fall asleep with all her nerves humming like this.

McKinley was stunned for a moment, then he started twitching. "Making such a contemptuous sound on the serene Angel Beach… you all are guilty of environmental pollution! Your charge has now been upgraded to a Class-6 crime!"

Hoshi was torn for a second between laughing and loosing all control. Adrenaline was pouring through her veins, and she felt ready to snap and start rampaging around with all the nervous energy.

Usopp had stress marks on his head. "Oi, we can't even snore?"

Luffy got up. "Ahh, what the hell!? I'm going to kick the ass of this Believer Ossan!"

"Shall we?" Zoro and Hoshi said at the same time, standing up.

"Hey you all! Stop right there! Oi! You guys listening to me?!" Usopp yelled. "Calm down! Luffy! Zoro! Hoshi! Hey, you've all heard of snails right? Snails are slow to anger-"

"But we're not damn snails!" Hoshi roared at him. She pulled out her whip with a loud crack that pierced the cloud below her feet. As it sort of oozed itself back together, she coiled her whip and pointed it at the captain. "So tell us something we're allowed to do," she challenged.

The captain was stuck. He twitched as he scrambled for an answer, but was saved from having to do so by a familiar voice. "Wait! You guys!"

"Ah! Nami-san, you're safe!" Sanji sang, leaping out of the cabana and waving his arms wildly.

"Hoshi! Luffy! Zoro! Don't make those guys mad!" the carrot-headed navigator yelled.

"Nami! Use your money to pay the 8,000,000 Beli illegal entrance fee!" Usopp yelled desperately.

"Great!" Nami yelled. "This'll be settled if we pay a fine?"

"Yes!" Usopp shouted.

Nami came closer to the shore on the Waver. "8,000,000 Beli?" she muttered.

Hoshi glanced at Nami's face, then immediately curled into a ball. "Hit the deck!" she yelled. Everyone else quickly followed her example.

"That's…" Nami floored it. "… TOO DAMN EXPENSIVE!!" she roared, running the Waver straight into an unsuspecting Captain McKinley. He yelled as he smashed into the cabana.

Conis and Pagaya looked horrified.

"Oh, shit!" Nami said, sweatdropping. "In my anger over that ridiculous amount of money, I accidentally…!"

"Oi," said the rest of the crew, waving their hands at her.

"Oji-san, thanks a lot for the Waver! It was really fun!" Nami sweetly said.

"Oh, no, it was nothing, I'm sorry," Pagaya replied. "More importantly, you are in quite a predicament!"

"Yosh!" Nami said, looking at the soldiers surrounding their fallen captain. "Let's run away!"

"Hang on, you're not going to finish the fight you started?!" Luffy asked.

"NO! This person they call 'God' is NOT someone we should mess with!"

Hoshi glanced at Nami and narrowed her eyes. Nami had seen something while she was out.

"By the way, what crime did she commit just now?" Zoro asked sarcastically.

"M-most likely obstruction of a public servant, a Class-5 crime," Pagaya hesitantly answered.

"Oh," Usopp said sighing. "It's still only Class-5."

"That's not good!" Conis exclaimed. Everyone looked at her. "If you commit a Class-5 crime… then in the name of God Enel, you will be sentenced to cloud drifting."

Hoshi cocked an eyebrow. "Cloud drifting?"

"What's that?" Luffy asked. "Cloud drifting sounds like fun!"

Conis looked horrified. "It is not! It's a death sentence!!"

Nami, Usopp, and Chopper all yelled, "D-DEATH SENTENCE?!"

Zoro glanced at the captain. "It's true he's out cold… but a death sentence in Godland seems sort of redundant."

"It's true, it really happens!" Conis insisted. "Cloud drifting is when a ship is set upon a piece of Sky Cloud. It drifts through the sky endlessly, until everyone on board has died!"

"I see," Robin noted. "So that's how a ship fell out of a clear sky."

Hoshi looked at Robin. "The St. Bliss exploratory vessel we saw, right?"

Robin nodded.

Hoshi growled, her hands forming fists at her side. Conis glanced at Hoshi's fists with some alarm, remembering what had happened to the fork.

**Done with this chapter for today! I hope you enjoyed! Please review if you liked!**


	8. Class2 Criminals

**Author's Note: Sorry this chapter took so long! Please review!**

**Disclaimer: Don't own One Piece**

Chapter Eight: Class-2 Criminals

"OI, YOU PUNKS!" the soldiers yelled. Everyone turned to look at them. "Do you have any idea what you've done to the captain?!" one of them yelled, pointing at Nami.

"Oh, I'm so sorry!" Nami apologized. "It was… a reflex!"

"REFLEX?!?!"

"I mean, how do you say it… unintentionally…"

"UNINTENTIONALLY?!?!"

"Today was my very first time on a Waver, so I'm sorry about that accident…"

"ACCIDENT?!?!?!"

Nami blinked, then grinned. "Yes! It was an accident! As I'm sure you all know, it's very difficult to control a Waver, and today was my first time on one! I had a very hard time controlling its direction!"

Luffy was confused. "But you were zipping everywhere on that thing so smoothly across the cloud oc-"

Usopp clapped a hand on Luffy's mouth. "Shut up moron!" he hissed. "Nami's got it all under control with this story!"

Pagaya came to save them. "I'm sorry for lending my Waver to a beginner, but shouldn't we take care of Captain McKinley?"

The soldiers jaws all dropped to the floor. "Oh damn! We forgot about Captain McKinley!!" They started running around in circles, crashing into each other and freaking out. "Captain McKinley's hurt! What do we do?!"

The Straw Hats sweatdropped. "Oi…"

"I can offer my house to nurse him, I'm sorry," Pagaya offered.

The soldiers suddenly lined up in the blink of an eye in uniform formation again. "We appreciate your cooperation!" one of them said. They all 'saluted' Pagaya. "Heso!"

Hoshi sweatdropped. "Great… the government here's run by a bunch of loonies," she muttered.

Zoro chuckled. "Sure seems like it."

The soldiers placed McKinley onto a stretcher and started crawling away. "The eight of you stay right there and don't move!" one of them called back.

Sanji lit a cigarette. "There they go crawling again…"

"Just carry the dude already," Hoshi grumbled.

Conis watched them leave. "I know… that you all are not bad people," she said, seeming to have difficulty saying the words. "So… please leave!" she told them, before running off.

Nami watched her go. "We should listen to her, " the carrot top said softly. She turned to face the crew. "I saw it with my own eyes! An island filled with terrifying people!!"

Chopper and Usopp started sweating.

"So you really did go to that forbidden holy place," Zoro said.

Luffy got stars in his eyes. "The place we must never, ever set foot?! Terrifying people?"

Usopp spun around a couple times in panic and covered Luffy's ears. "No more for you!"

"I'm not sure if they're Gods or guerillas, but I AM sure that they're nothing but trouble!" Nami continued. "Anyways, we're leaving, right now! If we stay here much longer, the way our luck's going, those two are going to be in serious trouble!!"

Sanji sighed. "Parting with Conis-chan breaks my heart… but if Nami-san says so…!!"

The crew started preparing to leave. Hoshi glanced back at the house with the balcony… Conis' and Pagaya's house. She felt a strange regret to leave those two behind, but she was certain by now that they weren't people who meant them any harm. The skull and crossbones donning the straw hat snapped in the breeze overhead. She glanced back at the beach… to see that Luffy hadn't moved an inch from where he was standing. She pulled out her wings and flew back onto the beach, landing behind him.

"What are you doing Luffy?" she asked.

"Why are we running away?" Luffy asked back.

Nami answered, "Because we're in danger!"

"Aren't we always in danger?"

"But this isn't just about us," Nami argued. "We might get those two arrested too!"

"But they didn't do anything wrong. Arresting them is what would be wrong."

Nami backed down for a second. "You have a point there… How many times do I have to tell you!? It's too dangerous here! Not just for us, but for them too!"

"Isn't there danger wherever we go?" Hoshi asked.

"YOU'RE NOT HELPING!!" Nami roared at her. Hoshi grinned, unfazed.

"But there is," Luffy agreed. "We're pirates."

"But those people-"

"Please run away!" Conis and Pagaya had returned… with a recovered Captain McKinley and his troops. "I beg you, run away now! Hurry!"

"Crap!" Nami muttered.

"Be silent!" McKinley told Conis. "There's nowhere for them to run. Know that if you try to aid these criminals, both of you will suffer grave consequences as well."

Conis fell silent, trembling.

Hoshi narrowed her eyes, aqua turning to ice.

"At any rate, for repeatedly directing abusive language towards us, and for the obstruction of a public servant… these Class-5 criminals are sentenced to cloud drifting!" McKinley confirmed.

"Crap!" Nami said again, louder. She grabbed Hoshi and Luffy. "Let's get out of here!"

"ARREST THEM!"

Five White Berets pointed arrows at them. Hoshi noticed that instead of points, these arrows had Dials on the ends of them.

"Please run away!" Conis burst. "You can't fight them!"

The soldiers shot their arrows. The Dials activated, spewing out a trail of some sort of solid white cloud behind them. "Milky Arrows!"

"Nami, sorry!" Hoshi yelled. She shoved Nami into the cloud ocean, out of the fight. Luffy dodged the arrows, and fell on top of a trail. He didn't pass through it… it really was solid.

"What is this stuff?!" he exclaimed. As if anyone was going to explain.

"White Berets… attack!"

The soldiers leaped into the air and started skating on the clouds towards Luffy and Hoshi. They both jumped out of the way, just barely avoiding getting hit by them.

"Hoshi, get out of here!" Luffy yelled. "I got them!"

"Right," Hoshi yelled back, jumping to the ground and ducking out of the clouds… or attempting too.

"You're not getting away!" one of the soldiers shouted. Five of them skated towards Hoshi at full speed, twirling lethal daggers in both hands from all directions… left, right, above, below, and behind. Hoshi ran, having trouble because her feet kept sinking into the fluffy cloud.

"Damn," she muttered, drawing her whip from the air. Cracking it even before it had fully materialized, she snapped it around the fluffy cloud below her and jumped, swinging out of the way just as one of the soldiers threw his daggers at the place she had been a second ago. She smirked at him as he passed by. Pulling herself back onto the cloud, she cracked her whip in a special twisting manner. It moved so quickly, it was impossible to see.

"Shiruba Hebi!"

The only clue anyone had to its whereabouts was the soldiers falling off the clouds.

Hoshi actually felt better than she had all day. Her nerves had felt constantly on edge, but now… she felt better. Making pleasant conversation with people she barely knew? Not happening again any time soon, she hoped. Fighting for her life and freedom with the Marines? Somehow, this just felt more _her_ somehow. She felt better in this position.

Luffy had narrowly escaped the knives as well. "Hoshi! They're all wearing skates like mini-Wavers!" he called.

"What?" Hoshi looked, and saw he was absolutely right. Suddenly, she saw something much more important. "Luffy! Look out!"

"Huh?!" A knife wielding soldier was dropping down on Luffy from above and behind. Luffy whirled around and scowled. "It's cowardly to attack from behind!" he roared, grabbing the poor guy's head and throwing him into three of his companions.

"Hoshi! Get out of here!" Luffy yelled. She looked at him for a second, and then grinned. He had the look in his eye again… which could only mean nothing good for the rest of the soldiers.

"Got it," she shouted, jumping from cloud to cloud until she was in the clear.

"I SAID you're not escaping!" a soldier growled, throwing his knife at Hoshi.

The blade buried itself in the back of Hoshi's calf and went straight through to poke out the other side. She blanched, her face tightening with pain as she landed and fell onto the cloud beach. Blood pooled and stained her pants, dying the cloud beach red. Conis screamed.

"HOSHI!" Zoro yelled. He ran to where she had fallen and took one look at her pinched face before shaking her shoulder. "Hoshi! Snap out of it!"

She cracked open one eye with difficulty and tightly grinned at him. Zoro all but melted for a second from relief, then he put a hand between her shoulder blades. "Come on, sit up."

Gritting her teeth, she sat up with his help. Then she grimly pulled the knife out of her leg, a feat accompanied by a small fountain of blood staining the beach even more. Zoro scowled darkly at the blood. She pressed her hands on either side of her leg to stem the flow.

Hoshi squeezed her calf with as much pressure as she could muster, gritting her teeth against the pain. Not only was her leg throbbing like hell, but the phoenix was screeching because it shared her pain. Suddenly, it fell quiet. _What now?_ Hoshi thought in agony. The wound was burning badly… damn, there must have been poison on the knives! _Those cheating, low-life, stupid-headed…_ Hoshi began a looong mental train of colorful words describing the soldiers as she bit her lower lip to keep from crying out.

"BASTARDS!!!" Luffy roared, stretching his arms. He was yelling loud enough to break Hoshi out of her dazed state. "How DARE you hurt my nakama!!"

"Impossible!" McKinley shouted. "A… a Devil's Fruit user?!"

Luffy's twisted himself around in midair, then started spinning while kicking and punching so fast he was nothing but a blur of feet and fists. "Gomu Gomu no… HANABI (firework)!!"

All of the soldiers were taken out. One of them pulled out a bow and a real arrow with a tip, pointing it straight at the unsuspecting Luffy. Zoro left Hoshi for a second to take care of him. He ran to take of him, growling savagely.

Chopper came running up the beach. "Hoshi! You're injured!" he said, taking off his backpack and rummaging around in it.

It took all of Hoshi's willpower not to yell at the little reindeer. She took a deep, shuddering breath, and let it out slowly.

She ALMOST cried out when Chopper shot some antidote for the poison into the wound, and ALMOST cried out again when he put a disinfectant cream on both sides of the wound before bandaging it up tightly. "There," he said, putting a firm knot onto the bandaging. "You'll be fine now, but you have to take it easy for the next few days or it'll take longer to heal," he told her firmly, meeting her eyes.

Hoshi grinned wolfishly. "I don't think the next few days are going to be easy though," she told the little reindeer.

"Chopper, is Hoshi alright?" Zoro asked, coming up the beach.

Chopper nodded. Hoshi stood with a little difficulty, and then they all watched the soldiers groaning on the beach.

Zoro blinked. "That reminds me… Nami!" he called. "What's our financial situation?"

"50,000 Beli," Nami called glumly.

"50,000? That's all?"

"Normally that's enough to get us through a couple days…"

"Why are we so poor?" Luffy demanded. He pointed a finger at Nami. "As your captain, I have to tell you that you need to be more careful about how you spend our money!" he told her.

Sanji snapped. "ALL THAT MONEY GOES TO FEEDING **YOU**!" he roared.

Luffy froze and sweatdropped. "Ah."

Robin chuckled.

Usopp crossed his hands across his chest and nodded gravely. "Yosh. It seems my idea to use Formation B was a success.

"Really!?" Chopper exclaimed, looking at Usopp in awe.

Conis and Pagaya were amazed.

"T-the White Berets…" Pagaya stammered. "T-they beat them."

"I thought people from the Blue Sea were supposed to find strenuous exercise difficult here," Conis whispered.

McKinley stood up with a groan, then started laughing maniacally. "You fools!" he cackled. "You all are idiots! Complete idiots! There's no going back now!"

Everyone turned to stare at him. "You should have just obediently followed our orders! The White Berets are the most gentle and understanding of all the guardians in Godland. But THEY… THEY will not be so forgiving!"

Nami gasped and started sweating. Hoshi growled.

"You all are now Class-2 criminals! Beg and plead for your lives all you want… but the Priests of Upper Yard will be the ones to judge you now!" McKinley yelled, pointing at them. "Heso!"

"Just shut the hell up already!" Hoshi said, cracking her whip across his face. He stumbled back a little. Hoshi cringed as she put too much weight on her injured leg, but she remained standing. A cut on the captain's face bled sluggishly. Hoshi coiled her whip and pointed it at him. "Lie down and pretend to be dead now, before you really do become dead," she advised him. "Before I become more pissed off than I already am."

He didn't move, just stood there grinning madly. Hoshi's patience snapped. "Kusabana!" she shouted, her whip cracking again. The last think McKinley saw before being knocked out for the second time that day was a pattern of a six-petal flower etched in the air in front of him. Then the whip caught him upside the head with a nasty thud.


	9. Distrust and Suspicion

**Author's Note: This chapter's a little longer than usual… sorry about that.**

**Hey, it would be pretty nice to get at least SOME reviews… posting two chapters that have gotten nada reviews is sort of depressing, and my morale's being lowered down the toilet.**

**Disclaimer: Don't own One Piece**

Chapter Nine: Distrust and Suspicion

The White Berets went crawling away in formation again.

"What's with them?" Luffy muttered. "Just walk already."

"That doesn't matter!" Nami snapped. "More importantly, we've been marked! That old lady said so, didn't she? 'You may pass'? Now we're here, and they're calling it an illegal entry?! It's a fraud! I should beat the hell out of her!!" she raged.

"Got that right!" Usopp agreed. Looking pointedly at Luffy, he said, "And we won't mention the part where we would've gone through even if she said we couldn't."

"You shut up!" Nami roared.

"Nevertheless, this is certainly a terrible predicament," Pagaya said worriedly. "As you are now Class-2 criminals, we can no longer help you," he called from up the beach.

Hoshi sweatdropped. "Why are you talking from so far away?"

Luffy chuckled. "It's not like it matters anyway," he laughed. "We're used to being wanted. By the way," he said, facing Nami. "Why'd you come back?"

Nami's eyebrow twitched. "What was that?"

"We were about to set off for the lad we must never, ever set foot on to have a great advent- I mean, to look for you."

A stress mark appeared on Nami's forehead. "I can see right through you," she muttered. She punched him in the forehead. "WHAT great adventure!?" she roared.

Chopper ran and grabbed Sanji's leg for comfort. The cook patted the reindeer's pink hat sympathetically.

"There are CRUEL, MURDEROUS people on that island! You didn't see them so you have NO RIGHT to say that!" Nami shouted, punching Luffy more with every other word.

Usopp shuddered and gritted his teeth. "I'm sorry Luffy," he muttered, "It was nice knowing you."

"I don't know or give a damn about if that was God or not," Nami continued, still punching Luffy. "But that TERRIBLE, HORRIBLE, INSURMOUNTABLE power was REAL!" she finished, punching Luffy into the ocean.

Luffy spluttered and gasped. "S-SABE BEE!"

"Ah! He's sinking again!" Chopper panicked. "W-w-what do we do!?"

"Leave him," Nami yelled, stalking off.

Luffy disappeared. Sanji sighed. "I guess we DO have to get him. He is our captain after all."

While the cook went to save Luffy, Hoshi turned to Nami. "What was that power you were talking about?" she demanded.

"Why the hell do YOU want to know?!" Nami raged. "We're not going there!!"

"Well excuse me," Hoshi shot back. "I just happened to feel something earlier, and I was wondering if it had any connection."

"It doesn't matter! We're NOT going!!" The navigator turned to the half-drowned Luffy to glower at him. "I am NOT, EVER, going back to that island!!"

Luffy spit out a fountain of water, then put his hat back on right. "Oh, then you can stay here while the rest of us go," he said.

"NO! Those White Beret people are going to come after me!" Nami said, more stress marks appearing on her head. "We are LEAVING this land right now!!"

Luffy stretched his neck to look at her in the eye. "No, we're not leaving! What's more important, adventure or your life?"

Nami grabbed his cheeks and pulled. "MY LIFE!" she roared, throwing his head into the beach. "Followed by my money!"

Sanji zoomed to her side. "Followed by me?" he asked.

"SHUT UP!" Nami raged, punching him in the head.

Sanji was swooning even as he flew. "Ah, Nami-san is so cute when she's mad…" he sighed as he landed face-first on the beach.

Usopp ventured a remark. "But this is sort of pathetic," he said. "We were in such a hurry to get to Sky Island, we never thought about how to get back down."

Hoshi jumped as Suu, the little Cloudfox, wove himself between her legs. Conis came shortly behind him. "I'm sorry if Suu was disturbing you," the blond girl said timidly. Hoshi answered with a cold silence.

"Neh, isn't there any way we can get home safely? Back to the Blue Sea?" Usopp asked.

Conis sighed. "Well, I wouldn't really call it 'safe' given your current situation…but there is a way. You must go to a gate at the very edge of the cloud, Cloud End."

"Thank goodness," Usopp sighed. "So there IS a way."

"Cloud End lies to the far east of the cloud," Conis explained. "To get there, you have to first go back down to the White Sea."

"Alright! Let's go!" Nami said, marching back towards the ship.

"No. I'm not going," Luffy said firmly.

"Oi, oi, oi! Do you want to be executed?!" Usopp asked.

"And you'd just cause trouble for Conis and Oji-san!" Nami added.

"Oh no!" Conis said hurriedly. "He's no trouble at all!"

The crew sweatdropped.

"Well even if we DID run for it, we might not be able to escape from those guys," Nami grumbled. "If that's the case, it doesn't matter where we stay. They know where we are, so we'll have to get a move on. Let's set sail!"

"Aye…" said the crew half-heartedly, following Nami to the ship. The navigator waved to Conis and Pagaya. "Thanks for all the he- AH! WHERE ARE YOU THREE GOING!?"

"I'm going to go get some food!" Luffy called happily. "You guys get the ship ready for adventure!!"

Nami scowled at Sanji, and Usopp's backs as they walked away, Luffy dancing with glee in the front.

Hoshi snickered as she heard Nami rage, "He still wants to go there! Damn idiot!" The navigator turned to Zoro. "It's really scary there!"

"So what?" Zoro snapped. "I don't care either way. Don't take it out on me!"

Everyone started walking back towards the ship. Nami called sweetly, "Chopper!"

The little reindeer froze, terrified. "You're on MY side right?"

Hoshi walked by, and Chopper latched onto her leg, trembling madly with fear. She glanced at his pathetic state before turning to the navigator. "Don't threaten him!" she called disdainfully to Nami.

A stress mark appeared on Nami's head. "I didn't say anything!"

As everyone boarded the ship, Zoro talked to Nami. "Don't you get it already?" he told her. "You can't convince Luffy. Even if we all told him together, he still probably wouldn't listen."

"How about 'definitely'?" Hoshi suggested.

Zoro grinned at her. "You're right about that."

Nami scowled. "Fine! Then I'm not coming!"

"Yeah, do that," Zoro said nonchalantly.

"'Do that'? I'd get killed by those wacko Marines!"

Zoro pulled his swords out of his waistband and leaned back on the mast to take a nap. "Then do that," he told her, before going to sleep.

Hoshi sweatdropped, then blue lines appeared over her eyes as she sensed a growing intent to kill from the navigator. To escape, she quickly scrambled up the rigging and took refuge in the crow's nest.

"Robin?" Nami asked. "Could the two of us restrain Luffy?"

"I doubt it," Robin replied with a smile.

Nami sighed. "I suppose that means we'll just be fending off whoever comes after us. Those White Berets must be gathering more of their nakama to come and attack us again."

Hoshi thought she saw movement in the undergrowth lining the shore, perhaps the flash of a ridiculous white hat, but when she looked again, it was gone. Still, it was enough to make her feel more uneasy than she already was.

Robin was pulling up the ladder when Conis came back. "Excuse me," she called. "I have something to tell you."

Hoshi couldn't hear what Conis was telling them once she got onto the ship, but she had a bad feeling. Leaning over the side, she caught a shout of surprise and joy from Nami. "A cloud current that will take us across the White-White Sea!?"

Conis nodded. "It will take you down to the White Sea, and proceed straight to Cloud End."

Nami looked excited. "Really!?"

"Yes. Once you're on that current, it should be difficult for anyone to catch you from that point on."

Nami snapped her fingers. "So that's it! We just have to keep the current a secret from Luffy until we get off the cloud!" she celebrated.

"By the time he realizes it, it's going to be too late, isn't it?" Chopper asked, looking a little disappointed.

Robin chuckled. "Although whether he gives up afterwards is another story."

Nami scowled. Chopper whimpered and hid behind Robin.

"I can guide you there using our Waver," Conis offered.

"Well," Nami sighed. "We just need to do it without that idiot catching on. I can do that pretty well."

"Well then!" Conis said. "Please raise your anchor and wait here!"

"We're indebted to you, Conis!" Nami said with a smile.

Conis jumped, and then she put on a shaky smile. "O-oh, it's really n-nothing," she stuttered.

"Hang on just a second," Hoshi yelled from the crow's nest. She jumped off and did a couple of flips before landing next to the group. Conis looked shocked for a second, but quickly wiped the emotion off her face.

"How do we know you're telling the truth?" Hoshi demanded, her aqua eyes ice.

Conis looked scared, but replaced it with a smile. "W-why would I lie to you? You all are good people, and I want you to get away!"

"First of all, you're sweating, telling me you're uncomfortable about something," Hoshi said, staring at the girl coldy. "Secondly, I don't remember you stuttering once before. You gave out all those informational speeches without so much as a mispronunciation, yet here you are. Thirdly, you're shaking like a leaf. Well?"

Conis was doing nothing to hide her fright now. She was visibly trembling under Hoshi's hard gaze, and seemed close to tears.

"That's enough Hoshi!" Nami yelled, whacking the raven-haired girl on the head. "You're scaring her!"

"I don't like this!" Hoshi shot back, rubbing the sore bump that had raised on her head. "How do we know we can trust her?"

"I-I trust her," Chopper ventured. "She's a good person!"

"If you're a human, you're born with the ability to lie," Hoshi said flatly. "It doesn't matter if you're good or bad in nature."

"Shut up!" Nami roared. She punched Hoshi into the mast. Hoshi yelled and crashed on top of the sleeping Zoro, landing in his lap.

"Hoshi! What the hell are you doing?!" Zoro yelled, pushing her roughly off of him.

"I wasn't doing anything!" Hoshi snapped.

"How did you fall on top of me?! You woke me up!"

"It wasn't my damn fault!"

Nami turned to Conis as the two kept arguing. "Sorry about that Conis! Hoshi's been through some hard times, so she tends to be… untrusting to most people."

Conis shakily smiled and wiped a small tear from her eye. "I've noticed," she said, a little dryly.

"Will you still take us to the current though?" Nami asked.

Conis nodded. Nami squealed and gave the blonde girl a hug. "You're really the best Conis!"

Five minutes later, Conis was walking away to get her Waver. Nami waved cheerfully. "See you, Conis!"

Conis waved back. "Heso!" she called, before continuing up the stairs.

Nami sighed in relief. "We finally see a ray of hope! With all that's happened, I was wondering what we were going to do!"

"But does that current really exist?" Robin asked.

Nami and Chopper looked at her. "If such a convenient current exists," Robin continued, "It wouldn't be unusual for survivors of Sky Island to be living on the Blue Sea."

Nami groaned. "First Hoshi, now you! Remember? They said they rarely get people who survive on the way up here in the first place! Of course almost none of them get away!"

Chopper looked up. "And even then, most of them probably weren't fast enough to get away before someone caught them," he said.

"Exactly!" Nami crowed, taking Chopper into her arms. "Chopper! You ARE on my side!"

Chopper started turning blue. "Can't… breathe…"

"Yosh!" Nami shouted, dropping Chopper onto the deck where he lay gasping. "Weigh anchor! Chopper, use Heavy Ball and do it this time… Zoro and Hoshi are still arguing."

"I-it's… 'Heavy Point'…" Chopper wheezed.

"WHAT WAS THAT?!"

"NOTHING! Nothing…"

Nami went down, grabbed Hoshi's and Zoro's hair before cheerfully slamming their foreheads together. "Stop fighting you two!" she ordered. "We have to hurry or we'll be wasting Conis' kindness."

Through the stars and strange colors filling her vision, Hoshi spotted Conis' figure walking up the stairs. It paused and looked back at the ship for a second, then continued upwards.

Chopper pulled up the anchor. Hoshi leaned over the banister and looked at the spot where the anchor had risen from. It bubbled a bit, then settled down. She looked back at the beach, a frown on her face.

"Yosha! Now we just have to wait until Luffy and the others get back!" Nami called cheerfully, emerging from the cabin. She had put on a yellow T-shirt.

"I'm going to go check on the others," Hoshi said unexpectedly.

Everyone looked at her, surprised. "You sure?" Zoro said.

Hoshi just gave him a look. He waved his hand. "Fine, I get it."

"You shouldn't go!" Chopper said, concerned. "What about your leg?"

"It's fine, thanks to you!" Hoshi smiled at him. The reindeer started sweating a little, torn between happiness and duty to his patient… and duty won over.

"Even so, you have to take it easy!" Chopper ordered.

"But it's fine, thanks to me having such a good doctor to take care of it!"

Chopper started sweating again, and Hoshi knew she had won when he started doing his little happy dance around the ship. "Your words don't make me happy at all, you asshole!" he sang.

"No! We're about to set off! Are you going to tell Luffy about the current?!" Nami demanded.

"Wouldn't dream of it," Hoshi replied, vaulting over the side of the ship, putting most of the impact on her uninjured leg.

"Wait! Hoshi!!" Nami yelled, running up to the banister.

Too late. Hoshi was already running up the stairs.

"Ah geez," Nami grumbled. "What's with her?"

"I think Gakushi-san (musician) is worried about the others," Robin commented. "She's not the type to leave people important to her in the hands of those she doesn't trust."

Hoshi caught up with Conis, then without saying a word, the two continued walking up the stairs. Conis couldn't help noticing that she was breathing a little heavily, and she was sweating. Hoshi would have rather died than have admitted it to anyone, but her leg really was painful, and running up halfway up the staircase forcing herself not to limp was probably not the best idea.

They reached Conis' and Pagaya's house and walked into the living room, seeing Sanji arranging several lunchboxes in a very elaborate artistic setting. "Welcome back Conis-chan!" he said, without looking up from his work. He giggled to himself. "These three will be for Nami-san, Robin-chan, and Hoshi-chan!"

"Which one's mine Sanji?" Hoshi asked, relaxing a bit, wiping some of the sweat off her forehead.

"Oh! Hoshi-chan, you're here!" Sanji celebrated. He pointed to a lunchbox that had rice, lobster, and different colored sushi put into a pattern that looked like a pair of wings. "This one's yours!" He took a second look at Hoshi's sweating face. "Hey, is your leg okay? You don't look too well."

Hoshi nodded cheerfully. "It's just fine!" she said through a smile.

"Ah! They almost don't look like food!" Conis admired.

"You think so!?" Sanji asked, looking crazily happy with a heart in his eye. He held one up with a delicate sugar sculpture in the middle of it. "This one's yours!"

"You made one for me too?" Conis asked, surprised.

"But of course!" Sanji said, standing up and wrapping one arm around Conis. In all seriousness, he solemnly proclaimed, "The title of this lunch is… 'Love is an Ordeal: the Lunch of a Descending Angel'."

"My!" Conis exclaimed, looking a little uncomfortable.

Hoshi sweatdropped. "Um…"

"Well, it's all the same once you eat it," Luffy commented.

"Quit being so rude!" Sanji yelled. "Listen up, food has to LOOK delicious first! It's a basic rule!"

"Oh?" Luffy closed his eyes and stuck a piece of food into his mouth. "See? Tastes the same!"

Conis looked surprised, then laughed as Sanji yelled, "You ate it without looking at it!"

"Oh?" Luffy ate another one without looking. "Still tastes the same."

"You have to savor it with your EYES first, you dimwit!!" Sanji shouted.

As the two continued arguing, Hoshi breathed an inner sigh of relief. Nothing bad had happened to her nakama… not yet.

**And that's the end of this chapter! Please review! I'd really appreciate it.**


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